The Saddest Day in Israel Since October 7

February 20, 2025

by: Einav Halabi ~ Ynetnews

Thursday, 20 February 2025 | Israel has received, through the Red Cross, the coffins of four deceased hostages, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed.

The coffins were handed over to the IDF and Shin Bet [Israeli internal security organization] forces, inside the Gaza Strip, from where they will be transferred to Israel to the Ministry of Health’s National Center for Forensic Medicine. At the end of the identification process, an official notification will be given to the families.  “The families of the kidnapped have been informed, and our hearts go out to them at this difficult time,” the statement said, adding: “The public is asked to respect the families’ privacy and refrain from spreading rumors and information that is not official and well-founded.”

The transfer comes as 503 days of hope for a different ending are shattered, and Israel is living through one of the most difficult days since October 7. Four killed hostages—who according to Hamas are Shiri Bibas, her young children Kfir and Ariel and Oded Lipshitz—were handed over to Israel Thursday morning, as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal. Israel confirmed the names of the hostages Wednesday evening.

As the handover was taking place, dozens of members of Kibbutz Nir Oz gathered in the Dove Square in Karmi Gat, where the evacuated community is based, waiting for the return of the four dead hostages, who are from their community.

At the request of the families, Ynetnews will not publish the harsh photos of the stage and the cynical “ceremony” that Hamas held in Bani Suheila, a suburb of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

This is a snapshot of what occured at the ceremony. On the stage at the ceremony, pictures of the four were displayed, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu depicted as a bloodthirsty vampire above them. The horrific caption alongside it, which also includes many errors in Hebrew, reads: “The war criminal murdered them, with the missiles of fighter jets.” Alongside it, against a background of pictures of coffins covered with Israeli flags: “Return to war—return of the hostages in coffins.”

One of the terrorists sitting in the front row at that “ceremony” was Muhammad Abu Warda, who was released in the third round of hostage releases under the current deal, three weeks ago.

Abu Warda was behind the attacks on Line 18 in Jerusalem in 1996, in which 44 people were murdered. In addition, he was behind an attack at a bus stop in Ashkelon in February 1996, in which a woman was murdered, and was sentenced to a total of 48 life sentences.

Hamas announced that the person who would hand over the dead to the Red Cross was the commander of the East Khan Younis Battalion—despite the fact that Israel previously had announced his elimination.

The Red Cross, to which the dead hostages will be transferred, were set to hand over the bodies to the IDF inside the Gaza Strip. Upon receiving the fallen hostages, they will be transferred to coffins covered with Israeli flags. At the handover ceremony, IDF Chief Rabbi, Brigadier General Eyal Karim, will read Psalms and and the El Moleh Rachamim prayer for the dead. From the Gaza Strip, the coffins will be transported in military vehicles directly to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir for identification.

An Israeli official referred to the intention to perform a “ceremony” and said that it would be a violation of the agreements between Israel and the mediators, under which Israel insisted that there would be no ceremonies and showpieces. “We talked about handing over the bodies in a dignified and appropriate manner. We made it clear that we do not agree to ceremonies and that the handover will be carried out in a dignified manner, and this is coordinated between us, the Red Cross and the mediators,” the official said.

The IDF spokesman will document the arrival status of the coffins, and the distribution of the photos will be the responsibility of the families of the fallen. As part of a secret annex to the agreement, the killed hostages will be transferred to Israel Thursday instead of on Saturday, the official day of the next round of returning hostages, because the process of identifying them can take up to 48 hours. This will ensure that Hamas complies with the agreement and handed over the dead Israelis. Only after there is official identification will Israel be able to confirm that the terrorist organization did indeed comply with the agreement, and only then will the security prisoners be released.

On Saturday, the last six living hostages set to be returned in Phase I will be released—Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Avraham Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed—and next week four additional hostages will be handed over. To meet the deadlines, the remaining hostages will also be handed over next week on Thursday, the 40th day of the deal.

The Palestinians announced that 602 Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli prisons this week. Some 445 of them are residents of the Gaza Strip who were arrested after October 7, and they will be released Thursday after the handover of the dead hostages. The others, who will be released on Saturday, are 50 sentenced to life imprisonment, 60 sentenced to long prison terms and 47 released in the Shalit deal. Some 108 prisoners will be deported to Egypt as a first stop, before being transferred to other countries, including 13 prisoners who suffer from serious medical problems.

Posted on February 20, 2025

Source: (This article was originally published by Ynetnews on February 20, 2025. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Hanay/Wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia