The Albany Gazette - Heartbreaking day ahead for Israel, says Netanyahu

"We received the heart-shattering news that Shiri Bibas, her children Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz are no longer with us," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

Yarden Bibas, the boys' father and Shiri's husband, was abducted separately on October 7, 2023 and was released from the Gaza Strip in a previous hostage-prisoner exchange on February 1.

The remains of his family and those of another dead hostage are due to be handed over by Hamas on Thursday, ahead of the release Saturday of six living hostages.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had the names of the hostages whose bodies Hamas is set to hand over, and had "updated the families".

In a separate statement, Netanyahu said: "Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the State of Israel -- a heartbreaking day, a day of grief. We are bringing home four of our beloved hostages -- fallen heroes."

Hamas on Wednesday signalled a willingness to free all remaining hostages held in the Palestinian territory in a single swap during the next phase of an ongoing ceasefire.

Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing phase one of the fragile truce, which has held since taking effect on January 19 despite accusations of violations on both sides.

Israel's foreign minister said Tuesday talks would begin "this week" on the second phase, expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

"We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages as in the current first phase," senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held in Gaza.

Nunu said this step was meant "to confirm our seriousness" and "to continue steps towards cementing the ceasefire and achieving a sustainable truce".

Under the ceasefire's first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in a series of Red Cross-mediated swaps.

Wednesday's Hamas offer came after both sides announced a deal for the return of all six remaining living hostages eligible for release under phase one in a single swap this weekend.

Hamas agreed on Tuesday to return the bodies of eight dead hostages in two groups this week and next.

After the first phase is completed, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza.

- 'Room to pressure Hamas' -

Muhammad Shehada, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that after more than a year of devastating Israeli assault in Gaza, "Hamas wants to prevent the war resuming at any cost", albeit with some "red lines".

"And one of those red lines is that they should continue to exist, basically, whereas Netanyahu's position is that they should dismantle themselves."

Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas's capacity to fight or govern.

The appearance that Washington is now completely aligned with Netanyahu's government, as displayed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit this week, strengthened Netanyahu's hand in negotiations, according to Michael Horowitz at risk management consultancy Le Beck International.

It gives Netanyahu "more room to pressure Hamas", Horowitz said, adding that US President Donald Trump "prefers that the agreement moves forward, but he's leaving the field open to Netanyahu... as long as the ceasefire is maintained".

- 'Held onto hope' -

While Hamas said Shiri Bibas and her boys were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel never confirmed this, and members of the Bibas family had hoped they might still be alive.

"We have held onto hope for 16 months, and we are not giving up now," the boys' aunt, Ofri Bibas, wrote on Facebook late Tuesday.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has acted as go-between in the exchanges, called for a respectful handover of the hostages' remains.

"We once again call for all releases to be conducted in a private and dignified manner, including when they tragically involve the deceased," it said.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, of whom 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

- Soldiers charged -

Since the war began, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Gazans, some of whom have been released in previous rounds of hostage-prisoner exchanges.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had filed charges of "causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances" against five reservist soldiers for assaulting a Palestinian detainee in July last year.

It said the incident took place at the Sde Teiman detention facility near the border which was created early in the war to hold detainees from Gaza.

(P.Clark--TAG)