Israelis mourned the Bibas family, which symbolised the trauma their country suffered in the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, as the Palestinian militant group agreed to free the last hostage bodies included in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire.
Lebanon’s new government won a confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday, following a speech by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam promising to push for economic and financial reforms and to start negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
Hamas said on Wednesday an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of Israeli hostages would take place through “a new mechanism” that guaranteed Israel’s compliance.
Israel mourns Bibas family as Hamas signals breakthrough on hostages
Israelis mourned the family that symbolised the trauma their country suffered in the Hamas-led attack of 7 October 2023, as the Palestinian militant group agreed to free the last hostage bodies included in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire.
Hamas said the bodies of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur would be released on Wednesday night and added that a hospital in Gaza was preparing to receive Palestinian prisoners who would be released in exchange.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said an agreement was reached for the handover of bodies of four deceased hostages but it did not name them.
The resolution came on the same day as the funeral of the Bibas family following the handover of the bodies of nine-month-old Kfir Bibas, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri last week.
The youngest hostages seized during the attack on Israel by Hamas on 7 October 2023 were killed weeks after they were abducted into the Gaza Strip.
Israel says it has intelligence and forensic evidence that shows the boys and their mother were killed by their captors using their bare hands. Hamas said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Thousands of people, some in tears, carrying blue and white Israeli flags or photographs of the family, walked in procession or waited as a convoy bearing the coffins drove past. Many were carrying orange balloons, a symbol of mourning for the hostages, matching the red hair of the two Bibas boys.
“It’s still not really registering,” said Tal Ben-Shimon, who joined mourners at what has come to be known as Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. “They kind of represent all the families, the very young families, who were slaughtered on that day.”
Yarden Bibas, the father of the boys, who was captured separately from his family and released earlier this month, paid tribute in an emotional eulogy at their funeral.
“I hope you know I thought about you every day, every minute,” he said in an address carried live on Israeli television.
For Israelis, the Bibas family has become an emblem of the trauma that has haunted their country since the Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages.
Israel’s air and ground war in Gaza in response has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians and destroyed most of the coastal enclave, but fighting has stopped since the fragile ceasefire agreement brokered by Egyptian and Qatari mediators last month.
Under the deal, Hamas agreed to hand over 33 Israeli hostages in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some of their positions in Gaza as well as an influx of aid.
On Wednesday, Egyptian mediators confirmed they had secured a breakthrough that should allow the handover of the final four hostage bodies due in the first phase of the deal this week after a dayslong impasse.
Hamas confirmed that an agreement had been reached for the exchange of hostages for prisoners, that would be conducted under a new mechanism.
It said the European Hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis was preparing to receive released prisoners as early as Wednesday night. The Israeli Prison Service said it had received the list of prisoners and detainees and that preparations were under way for their release.
An Israeli official said the bodies of the hostages were expected to be handed over around 11pm. Netanyahu’s office said their release would not include a Hamas ceremony.
The Hamas-staged ceremonies in which living hostages and coffins carrying hostage remains have been displayed on stage before a crowd in Gaza have drawn increasing criticism, including from the United Nations.
Israel had refused to release more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday after Hamas handed over six living hostages in such a ceremony.
Days earlier, the agreement was held up when Hamas handed over the remains of an unidentified woman instead of Shiri Bibas before delivering the correct body the next day.
With the 42-day truce due to expire on Saturday, it remains unclear whether an extension will be agreed or whether negotiations can begin on a second stage of the deal, which would see the release of the remaining 59 hostages in Gaza.
Despite numerous hiccups, the ceasefire deal has held. But moving to a second phase would require agreements on issues that have proved impossible to bridge so far, including the postwar future of Gaza and Hamas, which Israel has vowed to eliminate as a governing force.
Hamas said that it has not received any proposals so far.
Lebanon’s new government wins confidence vote in Parliament
Lebanon’s new government won a confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday, following a speech by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam promising to push for economic and financial reforms and to start negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.
Salam’s government won the backing of 95 legislators in the 128-seat chamber.
On Tuesday, the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah had given its backing to the government in a speech delivered by senior Hezbollah lawmaker Mohammed Raad.
Lebanon’s political landscape has been turned on its head since Hezbollah, long a dominant player in Lebanese politics, was badly pummelled in last year’s war with Israel.
Reflecting that shift, the new government’s policy statement did not include language used in previous years that was seen as legitimising a role for Hezbollah in defending Lebanon.
“We will work on removing Lebanon from the greylist and start negotiations with the International Monetary Fund,” Salam told Parliament before the vote. “We will put depositors at the top of our priorities.”
Lebanon has been in deep economic crisis since 2019, when its financial system collapsed under the weight of massive state debts, prompting a sovereign default in 2020 and freezing ordinary depositors out of their savings in the banking system.
Lebanon formed a new government on 8 February, following unusually direct US intervention in the process and in a step intended to bring the country closer to accessing reconstruction funds following the devastating war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Hamas says next swap deal with Israel will use ‘new mechanism’
Hamas said on Wednesday an exchange of Palestinian prisoners for the bodies of Israeli hostages would take place through “a new mechanism” that guaranteed Israel’s compliance.
The date for the exchange would be announced at the right time, added a Hamas statement.
Hamas also said it had not received a proposal about the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal despite its readiness to proceed with it to complete all the phases.
US envoy Witkoff may travel to Middle East on Sunday
US envoy Steve Witkoff could travel to the Middle East on Sunday if negotiations on the next stage of the Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went well, Axios reporter Barak Ravid reported on X on Tuesday.
The US Middle East envoy told an American Jewish Committee event that an Israeli delegation would travel in the coming days to Doha or Cairo to negotiate the next stage of the deal, wrote Ravid. Qatar and Egypt have acted as mediators in the talks.
“If it goes well I might travel to the region on Sunday,” Ravid quoted Witkoff as saying.
Ravid, citing a source, reported earlier on Tuesday that Witkoff delayed a planned trip to the Middle East by a few days due to US diplomatic efforts related to Russia and Ukraine.
Gaza reconstruction needs political clarity, says UAE
Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to UAE’s president, said on Wednesday a Gaza reconstruction plan could not happen without a clear path to a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
Investment in the project would need political stability, he added in remarks to the Investopia 2025 conference in Abu Dhabi.
“Gaza does need a reconstruction plan, a massive one, but that reconstruction plan cannot really take place without a clear path to a two-state solution. So, clearly here, you need political stability of a roadmap in order for these big investments to come to place,” said Gargash.
Arab states are weighing a post-war plan for Gaza to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to redevelop the strip under US control and displace Palestinians, a prospect that has angered regional leaders. The mainly Egyptian proposal may include up to $20-billion in funding over three years from the region, sources familiar with the discussions have said.
Egypt and Jordan held discussions with Gulf states in Riyadh last week to discuss the proposal ahead of an emergency summit to be held in Egypt on 4 March to discuss Gaza reconstruction.
Gargash added: “You know, you can’t just go and sort of invest billions without that political clarity and come back to see yet another conflict. I think that position is very clear.”
Israeli warplanes strike south of Damascus
Israeli warplanes hit a town south of Syria’s capital as well as the southern province of Daraa late on Tuesday, said residents, security sources and local broadcaster Syria TV.
Israeli planes struck the town of Kisweh approximately 20km south of Damascus, said a Syrian security source and Syria TV. The security source said a military site was targeted, without providing further details.
Additional Israeli air raids hit a town in the southern province of Daraa, said a resident and Syria TV.
The Israeli military said in a statement later that it attacked military targets in southern Syria including headquarters and sites which it said contained weapons.
“The Air Force is attacking strongly in southern Syria as part of the new policy we have defined of pacifying southern Syria — and the message is clear: we will not allow southern Syria to become southern Lebanon,” said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s spokesperson in a statement.
He added: “Any attempt by the Syrian regime forces and the country’s terrorist organisations to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria will be met with fire.”
The bombardment came hours after Syria condemned Israel’s incursion into the country’s south and demanded it withdraw, according to the closing statement of a national summit.
Israel moved forces into a UN-monitored demilitarised zone within Syria after rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former Al Qaeda affiliate, toppled former President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel would not tolerate the presence of HTS in southern Syria, nor any other forces affiliated with the country’s new rulers, and demanded the territory be demilitarised. DM
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