19 h. ago Middle East crisis live: Israel says body of Shiri Bibas returned as Hamas releases more hostages

Hamas has released two hostages so far today, with another four to come laterA masked militant has sat down at a table on the stage with a Red Cross representative and they appear to be signing documents.Live images from Rafah are showing masked Hamas fighters taking to the makeshift stage, with one speaking into a microphone. Continue reading...

Events

20 h. ago Middle East crisis live: Israel says body of Shiri Bibas returned as Hamas begins release of six more hostages

Hamas says six captives to be freed from Gaza in swap for about 600 Palestinian prisoners and detaineesA masked militant has sat down at a table on the stage with a Red Cross representative and they appear to be signing documents.Live images from Rafah are showing masked Hamas fighters taking to the makeshift stage, with one speaking into a microphone. Continue reading...

Events

21 h. ago Hamas hands over first of six Israeli hostages during tense prisoner exchange

Hamas has today handed over two of six Israeli hostages due to be freed from the Gaza Strip, as the body of murdered mother-of-two Shiri Bibas was handed back to her grieving family

Events

21 h. ago Middle East crisis live: Israel says body of Shiri Bibas handed over as Hamas begins release of six more hostages

Hamas says six captives to be freed from Gaza in swap for about 600 Palestinian prisoners and detaineesA masked militant has sat down at a table on the stage with a Red Cross representative and they appear to be signing documents.Live images from Rafah are showing masked Hamas fighters taking to the makeshift stage, with one speaking into a microphone. Continue reading...

Events

22 h. ago Body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas returned after Hamas release her remains

Ms Bibas was kidnapped with her sons from Niz Or kibbutz during Hamas's terror attack in October 2023

Politics

22 h. ago Middle East crisis live: Israel says body of Shiri Bibas handed over as Hamas prepares to release six more hostages

Hamas says six captives expected to be freed from Gaza on Saturday in swap for about 600 Palestinian prisoners and detaineesA convoy of Red Cross vehicles is now heading to a hostage handover site set up by Hamas in Rafah in southern Gaza, the Times of Israel is quoting an Israeli defense official as saying.The Red Cross is expected to receive two hostages there, the report says. According to Al Jazeera, hostages Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu will be freed in Rafah. The other four — Omer Shem-Tov, Eliya Cohen, Omer Wenkert and Hisham al-Sayed — will be released later in central Gaza’s Nuseirat.On the stage prepared by Hamas in Rafah are the usual placards with messages including “We are the flood” as well as military weapons and equipment the group claims were stolen from the IDF on October 7 2023.One piece is a gun on which the group wrote “Ravshatz,” the Hebrew acronym for the head of a community’s local security team, indicating it was taken from such an individual killed by terr...

Events

22 h. ago Family confirms body of hostage handed over by Hamas was Israeli mother Shiri Bibas

Hamas returns remains of Israeli hostage after mixup that threatened the ceasefire

Politics

23 h. ago Family confirms body handed over by militants overnight was Israeli mother Shiri Bibas

A body released by Palestinian militants overnight was confirmed to be Shiri Bibas, the Israeli mother whose two young sons also died in captivity

Politics

23 h. ago Body of hostage Shiri Bibas identified, Israeli Army radio says

Authorities in Israel have reportedly identified the body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, who was likely killed in Hamas captivity with her two children.

Politics

24 h. ago Shiri Bibas remains identified as Israel and Hamas prepare for another hostage

Gaza ceasefire deal still on track amid uproar over fate of two Israeli boys and initial false return of their mother’s bodyThe body of the Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas has been identified, Israel’s army radio reported early on Saturday, adding that Bibas was likely killed in captivity with her children.The confirmation came as Israelis and Palestinians braced for another tense exchange of hostages, prisoners and detainees on Saturday after uproar in Israel over allegations that two child hostages were “brutally murdered” by Hamas, and the group’s initial failure to deliver the body of their mother, instead returning the corpse of an unidentified woman. Continue reading...

Politics

26 h. ago IDF confirms Hamas have finally returned correct remains of Shiri Bibas' to Israel after devastating mix

Two days on since a harrowing mistake which saw Hamas return a body to Israel that had been incorrectly identified as Shiri Bibas, the militant group has now officially returned the correct remains

Politics

30 h. ago Body of hostage Shiri Bibas finally 'returned to Israel', Hamas claims

The mix up, as well as the public handover of the bodies, threatened to throw the fragile ceasefire out of the window after it caused outrage in Israel.

Politics

33 h. ago David Lammy describes Hamas’s release of wrong body as ‘sick and abhorrent’

Israeli authorities said what were supposed to be remains of Shiri Bibas were in fact the body of an unidentified woman from Gaza.

Politics

34 h. ago Israel vows Hamas will ‘pay the price’ after 24 hours of chaos rocks fragile ceasefire deal

Hamas denies deliberately handing over wrong body and blames Israeli bombings for deaths of hostages

Economics

38 h. ago Bibas family accuses Netanyahu of 'abandoning' Shiri and sons in Hamas captivity

Israeli forensic experts confirmed the identities of the two young boys but revealed a Gazan woman's body had been provided instead of Ms Bibas

Politics

38 h. ago Middle East crisis live: Israel claims Hamas killed Bibas children with their ‘bare hands’

Statement from IDF spokesman contradicts Hamas claim the family was killed in an airstrikeOne of the four bodies returned by Hamas to Israel on Thursday is not that of Shiri Bibas, Israel’s military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that was already precarious.The Israeli military confirmed that two of the bodies belonged to Bibas’ children, Ariel and Kfir, in the early hours of Friday. However, it added “During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body” Continue reading...

Events

40 h. ago Hamas 'will pay the full price' for not returning the body of Shiri Bibas, Netanyahu warns after terror group blamed 'mix up' for sending the wrong remains

The remains of four people, whom Hamas said were Israeli hostages, were handed over on Thursday, the first such transfer under the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Events

43 h. ago Hamas accused of serious Gaza ceasefire violation after returning ‘anonymous’ body instead of hostage victim

Hamas says there is possibility of an error after Israel says ‘anonymous’ body returned rather than hostage Shiri Bibas

Events

43 h. ago Middle East crisis live: Shiri Bibas remains mixed with others after airstrike, Hamas claims after Israel says wrong body returned

Israel has demanded the return of Shiri Bibas after it said testing showed that one of the four bodies released by Hamas did not belong to any other hostageFull report: Israeli military accuses Hamas of ‘serious violation’, saying Shiri Bibas not among returned hostagesOne of the four bodies returned by Hamas to Israel on Thursday is not that of Shiri Bibas, Israel’s military has said, calling it a “violation of utmost severity” of a ceasefire deal that was already precarious.The Israeli military confirmed that two of the bodies belonged to Bibas’ children, Ariel and Kfir, in the early hours of Friday. However, it added “During the identification process, it was determined that the additional body received is not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other hostage. This is an anonymous, unidentified body” Continue reading...

Events

44 h. ago Netanyahu slams 'cruel and malicious violation' of Gaza ceasefire deal over release of body

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed revenge for what he described as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement after a body that Hamas released as part of the deal was found to not be that of an Israeli mother of two young boys, as the militants had promised

Economics