Hamas returned four more hostage bodies and Israel released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners following a day of mourning as Israel buried the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two little boys – the youngest hostages murdered and held by Hamas for more than 500 days.
More than 100,000 Israelis lined the roads as the funeral cars carrying the bodies of slain former hostages Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas made their way to the cemetery in southern Israel, not far from their home at Kibbutz Nir Oz. The crowd carried Israeli flags and orange balloons, depicting the color of the children's hair, now a symbol of honor and shared grief for the family.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often spoken about the seven-front war that Israel has been fighting since the Hamas massacre and kidnappings on October 7, 2023. Recently, however, Israel's U.S. ambassador expressed concern about a potential eighth front in the war: a military buildup by the Egyptian military in the Sinai.
As negotiations continue for a long-term solution in Gaza, a campaign of hatred is being led by Palestinian clerics. They're using sermons to call for genocide against the Jews.
President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East is on his way back to the region to press forward on ceasefire and hostage talks after Israelis experienced a grueling week with the return of four hostage bodies and six living hostages.
The terror group Hamas on Saturday released six living hostages in to the custody of the Red Cross, who transfered them to the Israel Defense Forces. On Friday, the body of Shiri Bibas was also sent to Israel after Hamas had enraged Israelis by returning an unidentified Gaza woman in a coffin they said contained Bibas' body.
At the end of an incredibly hard day of mourning after Hamas returned four bodies of Gaza-held hostages, Israelis had to deal with a series of mass transportation terror attacks, and later, the news that one of the bodies was not who it was supposed to be.
The nation of Israel is in mourning. The bodies of four kidnapped hostages from the October 7th massacre made their way from Gaza to Israel Thursday morning. Today's exchange was widely regarded as the most heart-wrenching yet.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar this week welcomed the Pacific island nation of Fiji as the seventh country to declare its embassy will move to Jerusalem.
Israel and Hamas have agreed to speed up the next exchange of the Hamas-held hostages for Palestinian prisoners. Hamas says it will now release six hostages this coming Saturday. It also says it will return the remains of four dead hostages to Israel on Thursday.