Last Ones

The last hostages to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal came home in varying degrees of health as we see in a report from the Jewish News Syndicate:

Israel on Saturday redeemed six living hostages from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip: Eliya Cohen, 27, Avera Mengistu, 39, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, Omer Shem Tov, 22, Tal Shoham, 40, and Omer Wenkert, 23.

Four of these men were abducted on the October 7th, 2023 massacre:

Cohen, Shem Tov, Shoham and Wenkert were all abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, while Mengistu and al-Sayed suffer from mental illness and crossed into the Strip over a decade ago.

The releases were done in separate locations with all of them staged to make Hamas victorious and Israel as the villains:

Hamas released Mengistu and Shoham during a propaganda ceremony in southern Gaza’s Rafah, while Cohen, Shem Tov and Wenkert were freed in a similar exchange in Nuseirat in the Palestinian enclave’s center. Al-Sayed was handed over in Gaza City.

The families issued statements of their own:

Shoham’s family released a statement hailing the “unforgettable moment,” while urging the government to do everything in its power to bring home the remaining captives.

“We thank all the people of Israel who stood with us through all the long days of pain and suffering. During these days, we need privacy for Tal, Adi, and the children,” said the statement.

Added Mengistu’s relatives: “Our family has endured 10 years and five months of unimaginable suffering. During this time, there have been continuous efforts to secure his return, with prayers and pleas, some silent, that remained unanswered until today. … We ask that these moments be respected, and that we be granted the peace and rest we so desperately need.”

Cohen’s family said in a statement on Saturday, “We are overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude for Eliya’s return home after 505 long and torturous days in captivity. …

“We want to thank the IDF soldiers, the fighters, the Hostages Families Forum, our family liaison officer Amit, and especially all citizens of Israel for their embrace, support, and unwavering faith. Many prayers were answered today, and we thank everyone who accompanied us on this long journey,” added the statement.

Shem Tov’s family noted he survived captivity despite suffering from celiac disease and has become “a child of the entire State of Israel” since the Oct. 7 invasion and massacre.

“We still don’t know everything—the horror stories will only be revealed with time. But now, we can hug him again,” the family said in a statement.

“Thank you to the Creator, to the people of Israel for their prayers, strength and love. Thank you to the soldiers who sacrificed for this moment, to everyone involved in the negotiations and diplomatic efforts. Thank you to Omer’s family and friends, and ours, who never gave up and never lost hope,” it added.

She Was Murdered

Hamas is saying that the Bibas family members were killed in IDF bombings, but the forensics on the bodies say otherwise as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel:

The director of the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine, Dr. Chen Kugel, confirmed on Saturday that his team had positively identified the remains of hostage Shiri Bibas, two days after Hamas initially handed over the body of an unknown Gazan woman in place of her remains.

Again, Hamas lies were refuted once the real remains of Shiri Bibas were finally returned:

Kugel also said there was no evidence that Bibas died in an explosion, refuting Hamas’s claims that she and her sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Why the terrorist group didn’t return Biba’s remains the first time is a mystery, but Hamas is known to play games like this and blame something else for the snafu:

The Hamas terror group was supposed to return Shiri on Thursday along with her young sons, and fellow Kibbutz Nir Oz resident Oded Lifshitz. But after the remains of Ariel, Kfir and Lifshitz were positively identified, the fourth body was found to be that of an unnamed Palestinian woman from Gaza.

After Hamas claimed that there must have been a mix-up with the bodies, the terror group transferred a fifth body to the Red Cross late on Friday night, which was then handed over to the IDF in the Gaza Strip.

Kugel officially confirmed that the body was correct this time:

In live remarks to the press on Saturday evening, Kugel confirmed that the forensic institute had identified her remains and that, despite Hamas’s claims that she and her sons had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023, there was no evidence at all that she had been killed in an explosion. Kugel also said there was no evidence that Bibas died in an explosion, refuting Hamas’s claims that she and her sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Kugel said that everything was done expertly to give all, especially the families closure:

Kugel said that the medical staff at Abu Kabir had worked “professionally and carefully to provide clear answers to the Lifshitz and Bibas-Silberman families” since receiving the bodies, first on Thursday and then on Friday night. “It’s a difficult day for the families, for us, the medical staff, and for the entire nation of Israel,” he added.

Killed In Cold Blood

Some people commented on my previous podcast that there were no bodies to examine since they were destroyed by the air strikes and it would be impossible to correctly identify any bodies. They added that since Israel bombed every place there were no labs to identify them adding to the confusion of the mix up. It was hard to follow such logic, but I can tell you that these terrorists knew exactly what they were doing and they would have gone to great lengths to keep the bodies intact so they can extract as many advantages from them. Hamas knew exactly what they were doing:

The military previously said forensic evidence had shown that, like Shiri, neither Ariel nor Kfir was killed in an Israeli strike but were murdered by their terrorist captors “in cold blood” in November 2023.

Hagari added details that I don’t know exactly what they mean:

“The terrorists did not shoot the two young boys — they killed them with their bare hands. Afterward, they committed horrific acts to cover up these atrocities,” said IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari on Friday.

What acts did they do to mask what they actually did? Until we’re told we simply have to presume that it was devious at the least. The father wants all the world to know what these brutal animals did:

Hagari said he had spoken to the children’s father Yarden on Thursday and that he had demanded the world be told what happened to his sons.

Assessments issued by Israeli officials after the body had been identified said that Shiri had been likewise “brutally” murdered by her captors in November 2023.

Prime Minister Netanyahu forget the way they’ve been treating these hostages and the Israeli Defense Minister went a little further:

In response to the findings, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel “will not forget and will not forgive” the murders of the three members of the Bibas family.

Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that their murder would “not be taken lightly.”

The “exciting and joyous moment” on Saturday of the release of six hostages from Gaza was “also accompanied by deep pain over the fate of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, who were brutally murdered by Hamas and their partners,” he said. “This brutal and horrific act will not be taken lightly.”

As usual, Hamas blames Israel for their deaths and the horrendous details way they killed them are Israeli lies:

Hamas, meanwhile, continued to insist that the family had been killed in an airstrike, and accused Israel on Saturday night of spreading “baseless lies” about their deaths.

“The false allegations that the criminal [Israeli] occupation is disseminating about the deaths of the Bibas children at the hands of their captors are merely baseless lies and fabrications,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem claimed.

Getting back to the hostage families, three generations were killed within this family alone:

The confirmation of Shiri’s death meant that three generations of her family were murdered by terrorists — her parents Yossi and Margit Silberman were killed at Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, during the attack.

Do these monsters even care about the humanity lost here? No, they don’t. Why is Israel letting them continue blackmailing them? I personally think that Netanyahu wanted to get the 1st phase hostage releases done so Israel can end the truce in light of Hamas blatantly violating it over and over again. They have the grounds to do so and everyone knows it. The terrorists think they are the ones in charge but all the talks from American leadership all point to bargaining for a one-time release of the remainder of the hostages or going back to fighting intensely and taking out Hamas once and for all. Which means we definitely need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.