Israel ready to resume war; ‘no evidence’ slain mum killed in blast
Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened the resumption of war over hostage “humiliation ceremonies”, as Israel’s top forensics chief rejected Hamas’ claim over the death of Shiri Bibas.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is prepared to resume fighting against Hamas after the Palestinian group accused it of endangering a five-week-old Gaza truce by halting the release of more than 600 prisoners.
Mr Netanyahu, speaking at a military ceremony a day after Israel stalled the release of the Palestinian prisoners in exchange for six hostages freed by Hamas from Gaza, vowed to achieve the war’s objectives in negotiations “or by other means”.
“We are prepared to resume intense fighting at any moment,” he said.
Since the ceasefire began on January 19, Gaza militants have released 25 living Israeli hostages in staged ceremonies, often flanked by masked gunmen and forced to speak.
After six hostages were freed on the weekend, Israel put off the planned release of more than 600 Palestinians, citing what Mr Netanyahu called “humiliating ceremonies” in Gaza.
With tensions again surging over the deal, Israel announced an expansion of military operations against militants in the occupied West Bank, a separate Palestinian territory where violence has soared throughout the Gaza war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage-prisoner exchanges, has previously appealed to “all parties” for the swaps to be carried out in a “dignified and private” manner.
Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said postponing the release exposes “the entire agreement to grave danger”.
He called on the truce mediators, “especially the Americans”, to pressure Israel “to implement the agreement as it is and immediately release our prisoners”.
Both sides have accused each other of violations during the ceasefire but it has so far held.
SLAIN MOTHER ‘NOT KILLED BY EXPLOSION
Israel’s top forensics chief says slain Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas was not killed by an explosion, as Hamas has claimed.
Dr Chen Kugel, director of the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine, backed Israeli officials’ assertions that Mr Bibas, 32, and her two sons, nine-month-old Kfir and four-year-old Ariel, were not killed by an Israeli air strike in November 2023.
“Our examination found no injuries consistent with a bombing,” Dr Kugel told reporters.
“We were met with depths of evil and malice that could not be conceived.
While Dr Kugel did not say how Ms Bibas died, Israeli officials have claimed she was “brutally” murdered alongside her young children in November 2023.
The first transfer of dead hostages under the truce earlier this week sparked anger in Israel when the remains of Ms Bibas were not initially returned, promoting Hamas to admit a possible “mix-up of bodies” and finally hand over hers.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk condemned the “parading of bodies” during a ceremony in which coffins, with pictures of the dead attached, were displayed on a slogan-bedecked stage.
KHAMENEI VOWS ‘RESISTANCE’ AT HEZBOLLAH FUNERAL
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed “resistance” against Israel as Tehran-backed Hezbollah held a funeral in Beirut for its leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli strike last year.
“The enemy should know that resistance against usurpation, oppression and arrogance is never-ending and will continue until the desired goal is achieved,” Khamenei said in a statement published on his official website.
Nasrallah was killed alongside Iranian Revolutionary Guards general Abbas Nilforoushan in an Israeli strike on south Beirut on September 27, during a war between Israel and Hezbollah that ended in a November ceasefire.
Tens of thousands of mourners gathered in the Lebanese capital for the funeral of the longtime Hezbollah chief and his heir apparent Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in a separate strike.
Khamenei praised Nasrallah as “a great mujahid (fighter) and prominent leader”, and Safieddine as “a close confidant and an inseparable part of the leadership”.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in Beirut for the funeral along with parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and deputy Revolutionary Guards commander Ali Fadavi, said the fight against “oppression and occupation” will continue.
FATHER OF HOSTAGE SLAMS ABUSE
The father of Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim returned to Israel in the most recent round of hostage releases after nearly a decade in Gaza captivity, urged “the Arab world” to speak out against abuses by Hamas.
Sayed, 37, who is schizophrenic according to his family, had entered the Gaza Strip in 2015 and was held hostage there since.
“At the start of his captivity, when there were four hostages in Gaza, I thought that Hamas members would keep him safe, because it was in their interest” to exchange him for Palestinians in Israeli jails, said the father, Shaaban al-Sayed.
Speaking to journalists at a hospital in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, he said that after Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the Gaza war, “I began to tremble with fear.” “I saw that Bedouins and Arabs were killed, working people who weren’t soldiers or fighters,” said Sayed of some of the hundreds killed during the attack.
“The Arab world doesn’t react, doesn’t give any response to that, doesn’t take any stance,” he said.
“We want the Arab world, and particularly Arab society in Israel, to voice their opinion: What do they think about the fact that innocent people were kidnapped and murdered?” Sayed accused Hamas of violating the teachings of Islam by exploiting his son who “has mental problems”.
“When we got Hisham back, we were relieved to see him walking on his legs,” the father added, “but as I held him in my arms, I realised I was hugging a body... not a human being.” “He doesn’t talk. He doesn’t have a voice. He can’t remember anything. It’s like he hadn’t been with other human beings” during his years in captivity, he said.
“This makes us angry,” added the father, calling to intensify efforts to free all remaining hostages in Gaza.
— with AFP
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