Middle East: Hamas claim to hand Bibas' remains to Red Cross

The Red Cross collected a body from Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Friday night, the Times of Israel reported, citing two officials, including a senior Arab diplomat.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Mardwai has told Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television that the group handed over the body of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas. The German dpa news agency also said a Hamas official confirmed the news.

Hamas had said it returned Bibas' body along with the bodies of her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, on Thursday. Israeli officials confirmed two sets of remains belonged to the children. However, the body militants claimed was Shiri Bibas was that of a Gaza woman.

The body recovered by the Red Cross on Friday night has not yet been handed over to the Israel Defense Forces. Once in Israeli hands, the remains will be taken to a forensic institute for identification.

Police in Sweden detained three men near the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm on Friday night on suspicion of preparing to commit a violent crime.

Swedish broadcaster TV4 reported that the diplomatic mission was the target, however, authorities did not confirm the potential target, saying it was too early in the investigation to determine.

"We are unable to comment on the potential motive," police spokesperson Susanna Rinaldo told Reuters news agency.

The arrests were made near the embassy but not inside the compound itself, she said without elaborating.

The Israeli military (IDF) said it is looking into reports by Al Jazeera that Hamas militants returned the remains of Shiri Bibas to the Red Cross.

"IDF representatives are in contact with the family," it said.

According to the Times of Israel, Hebrew-language media reports say the Red Cross is heading to a handover location in southern Gaza's Khan Younis and has not yet received a body.

Visiting the West Bank's Tulkarem refugee camp, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered his country's military to step up operations in the occupied territory.

The move was in response to explosions on three buses in central Israel on Thursday.

Israeli officials say the devices used in the attacks were similar to others made in the West Bank.

Netanyahu's office said that Israeli troops were entering militant strongholds, "clearing entire streets" and the homes of alleged militants.

Israel's large-scale military operation in the West Bank began a few days after the new ceasefire began in Gaza.

Spanning multiple refugee camps near the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas, the Israeli operation has killed at least 40 Palestinians and displaced at least 40,000, according to the United Nations.

Israel says its increased operations are aimed at combating rising Palestinian militant attacks against Israelis. 

Israel has closed the main crossing for aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Spokesman Omer Dostri stated on X that "the Kerem Shalom crossing is closed today, and no equipment has entered Gaza since yesterday."

Dostri did not provide a reason why the crossing was closed.

The Israeli authority for Palestinian affairs, COGAT, also confirmed the closure when asked. It also did not explain why the crossing was shut.

According to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, about 10 container houses were brought into Gaza through Kerem Shalom shortly before the closure.

The delivery of temporary homes is one of Hamas' key demands for the continuation of the ceasefire and the agreed exchange of Israeli hostages from Gaza for imprisoned Palestinians.

Of Gaza's population of about 2.3 million people, around 90% have been displaced and nearly 69% of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations.

Israel will release 602 Palestinian detainees from jails Saturday as part of a hostage-prisoner exchange with Hamas under an ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club advocacy group, those to be released include 445 Gazans arrested after the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the current conflict, 60 serving long sentences, 50 serving life sentences and 47 rearrested after being released in a 2011 prisoner exchange.

The Bibas family accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to protect their loved ones during the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, and also of failing to bring them home.

"There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7, and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we did not receive an apology from you in this painful moment," Ofri Bibas, the aunt of Kfir and Ariel Bibas and Yarden Bibas' sister, said in a statement.

She also said the family was still waiting to learn the "fate" of Shiri Bibas and was "not seeking revenge right now."

The bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were the youngest Israeli hostages, were returned to Israel on Thursday. Yarden Bibas, the boys' father, was released alive in an earlier exchange.

The armed wing of Hamas hit back at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday after he accused the group of handing over the remains of an unidentified Gazan woman instead of an Israeli hostage.

Netanyahu said one of the four bodies handed over on Thursday was not Shiri Bibas, as had been agreed to under the terms of the ceasefire. He accused Hamas of violating the deal.

"We reject Netanyahu's threats, which serve only to manipulate Israeli public opinion," Hamas said.

The militant group claimed it had "demonstrated full compliance with the agreement in recent days and remains committed to all its terms."

Hamas said it would "conduct a thorough review" of the allegations and suggested that a mix-up of the remains may have occurred due to Israeli bombardment of the location where Bibas was being held, with Palestinians also present there.

It called on Israeli authorities to return the unidentified body that was handed over on Thursday.

The armed wing of Hamas said it would release six more Israeli hostages on Saturday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

It named the hostages as Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Hisham
al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu.

The last two, al-Sayed and Mengistu, are civilians who entered Gaza a decade ago and have been held there since.

The Reuters news agency reports that Hamas militants stated the remains of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas appear to have been mixed with other human remains.

Israel's military earlier said one of the hostages' bodies returned from Gaza on Thursday was not that of Shiri Bibas as promised. 

An Israeli organization advocating for the release of hostages from Gaza said it was "horrified" that one of the four bodies Hamas released on Thursday was not Shiri Bibas as expected.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement on social media that three of the bodies had been identified, but not the fourth.

"With profound sorrow and unbearable pain, we have received confirmation of the brutal murder of Oded Lifshitz, Ariel Bibas, and Kfir Bibas at the hands of their Hamas captors. Their remains were returned to Israel yesterday for burial in our homeland," the group said.

"We are horrified and devastated by the news that their mother, Shiri, was not returned — despite the agreement and our desperate hopes."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday morning accused Hamas of committing a "cruel and evil" violation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement by not returning the remains of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed.

The Israeli military earlier said it could not identify the body that Hamas claimed was Bibas during a hostage handover on Thursday. The three other bodies were able to be identified.

"We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages, both living and dead, and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement," he said in a video statement on social media.

The Israeli military said on Friday that one of the four bodies returned from Gaza is not Shiri Bibas, as Hamas militants claimed.

Hamas, which Israel, the United States, the European Union and others consider a terrorist organization, had returned four bodies on Thursday as part of a ceasefire deal.

"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," the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement.

"This is an anonymous, unidentified body."

"This is a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is obligated under the agreement to return four deceased hostages," the statement continued.

"We demand that Hamas return Shiri home with all our hostages."

The bodies of Babas' two sons were also returned. Hamas claimed that the three Bibas family members were killed in Israeli airstrikes during the early months of the war, but Israel has not confirmed this.

The father, Yarden, was released alive by Hamas earlier in the month.

Saudi Arabia will host "an informal brotherly gathering" of Gulf leaders on Friday, the country's state-run media said, reportedly to devise a reconstruction plan for Gaza that counters US President Donald Trump's plan to "take over" the territory.

The summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital, will include leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Egypt and Jordan.

A source close to the Saudi government told the AFP news agency that the leaders were set to discuss "a version of the Egyptian plan."

Egypt has staunchly opposed Trump's plan to expel some 2 million Palestinians from Gaza, considering it a violation of Palestinian sovereignty.