Israel checking Hamas claims that new body handed to Red Cross is Shiri Bibas
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What is the latest development in the Shiri Bibas case involving Hamas?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil, and in the early hours of Saturday, the 22nd of February, these are our main stories. A day after Hamas returned the wrong body to Israel, it now says it has handed over the body of a mother who was kidnapped with her two young sons. Donald Trump accuses France's President Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer of doing nothing to end the war in Ukraine. The tech giant Apple is to remove access to its top data protection tool for British users.
Also in this podcast... Becoming consciously aware of your feet, feeling your feet on the ground. It's extraordinarily effective considering how tiny and throwaway that sounds.
Tips on how to de-stress from the news. We start in Israel, where a day after Hamas returned the wrong body to a grieving family and nation, the Palestinian militant group says the body of hostage Shiri Bibas, a mother who was kidnapped with her two young sons, has now been handed over. The Israeli military says it's checking this. The bodies of the boys, four-year-old Ariel and baby Kafir, were handed over on Thursday, but a body said to be their mother's was later confirmed to be that of another woman. Israel said the children had been murdered, contrary to Hamas's claims that they died during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. The boy's aunt, Ofri Bibas-Levi, said the family didn't want revenge, just the return of every hostage, dead or living, as soon as possible.
My sweet nephews were taken alive from their home and murdered by a cruel terrorist organisation while in captivity. They didn't deserve such a fate. And it was Israel's responsibility and obligation to bring them back alive. There is no forgiveness for abandoning them on October 7th and no forgiveness for abandoning them in captivity. For Ariel and Kafir's sake and for Yarden's sake, we're not seeking revenge right now. We are asking for Shiri.
Ahmed Youssef was a senior advisor to the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is now in a camp for displaced people in Khan Yunis. Mr Youssef said Hamas had made a mix-up and did not want to jeopardise the fragile ceasefire deal.
I believe that nobody from Hamas' side, I don't think they are trying to play games. They would like to continue the truce and they would like to be trustworthy in the way they are handling the agreement that they have negotiated in Qatar and Egypt.
With more on this latest development, here's our correspondent in Jerusalem, Mark Lowen.
There were reports that started to come in that Hamas said it was delivering the coffin containing the body of Shiri Bibas. We've now had confirmation from the Red Cross quoted in the Israeli media that they have received a coffin from Hamas and that they are transporting it to Israeli authorities. The Red Cross is the organisation which collects the hostages both dead and alive over the last few weeks of the ceasefire agreement. That coffin will now be transferred to the Forensics Institute here in Israel for identification. There has not yet been a confirmation from the Israeli Defence Forces, I have to say. We are waiting for comment from Israel. They said that they are looking into the reports.
but a spokesman to the Israeli media from the Red Cross saying that they have received a coffin. Now, for the Bibas family, the turmoil just goes on because it is just a matter of hours, really, or a space of a day, since they were told by the Israeli Forensics Authority that the body that Hamas claimed was that of Shiri Bibas, which was investigated by the forensics teams yesterday night in Israel. actually was not that of Mrs. Bibas, but indeed was an unidentified Gazan woman. Hamas blamed what it called an unfortunate mistake for that and suggested that there had been a mix-up in remains under the rubble in Gaza. But you can imagine the kind of emotional rollercoaster and the whirlwind that the Bibas family are on, waiting to see if indeed this body, if it comes here to Israel, is confirmed to be that of Shiri Bibas.
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