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Israeli authorities delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners due Saturday in exchange for six hostages freed from Gaza, prompting Hamas to accuse Israel of a “blatant violation” of the truce deal.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to convene a consultation on Saturday evening, two Israeli officials said.”Once the security consultation concludes, a decision will be made regarding the next steps” of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, said one official, speaking on condition of anonymity.After the six captives were released, Netanyahu in a statement vowed to “continue acting decisively in order to bring all of our hostages back home”.From Washington, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that Hamas would be “destroyed” if it did not release all the remaining hostages.”Hamas’ treatment of hostages, including its brutal murder of the Bibas family, further illustrates their savagery and is yet another reason why we are saying these terrorists must release all of the hostages immediately or be destroyed,” he wrote on X.In the Israeli-occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, families waited for hours for their loved ones to be released from Israeli custody in exchange for the six Israelis taken back home.”Waiting is very difficult,” said Shireen al-Hamamreh, whose brother was due for release.”We are patient and we will remain stronger than the occupier, God willing,” she told AFP in the West Bank city of Ramallah.- A ‘blatant violation’ -The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel would free 620 inmates on Saturday, most of them Gazans taken into custody during the war, but their release has stalled into the night.Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said in a statement that Israel’s “failure to comply with the release… at the agreed-upon time constitutes a blatant violation of the agreement”.Qanou called on the truce mediators to pressure Israel to “implement its provisions without delay or obstruction”.Israeli sources did not provide a clear reason for the delay, which comes after an emotional two days in Israel, where the remains of hostage Shiri Bibas have been identified after the initial handover of a different body.Netanyahu has said Hamas will pay “the full price” for what he termed a violation of the truce deal over Bibas’s return.Bibas and her two young sons, among dozens taken captive during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, had become symbols of the ordeal suffered by the Israeli hostages.Forensics expert Chen Kugel said an autopsy conducted on their remains had found “no evidence of injuries caused by a bombing”.Hamas militants had claimed that all three were killed in the early days of Gaza war in an Israeli air strike.- ‘Coming back home’ -Six Israelis, some of them dual nationals, were released earlier on Saturday, the last group of living hostages under the truce’s first phase.The first phase of the truce has so far enabled the release of 30 captives and is due to expire in early March.Negotiations for a second phase, which is meant to lead to a permanent end to the war, have yet to begin.At a ceremony in Nuseirat, central Gaza, Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Israeli-Argentine Omer Wenkert, 23, waved from a stage, flanked by masked Hamas militants, before their handover to the Red Cross.”I saw the look on his face, he’s calm, he knows he’s coming back home… He’s a real hero,” said Wenkert’s friend Rory Grosz.Under the cold winter rain in Rafah, southern Gaza, militants handed over Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38, who both appeared dazed.A sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, was later released in private and taken back to Israeli territory, the military said.Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian Jew, had been held in Gaza for about a decade after they entered the territory individually.Sayed’s family called it “a long-awaited moment”.Relatives of Shoham wept and embraced as they watched his handover, video released by the Israeli government showed.”Tal seems well considering the circumstances. An enormous weight is lifted from us,” the family of the Austrian-Israeli dual national said.Hamas later published a video showing two Israelis still captive in Gaza watching one of Saturday’s ceremonies from a vehicle, pleading for Netanyahu to secure their release. AFP could not confirm the authenticity of the video.- ‘Mix-up’ -On Thursday, the first transfer of dead hostages under the truce sparked anger in Israel after analysis concluded that Shiri Bibas’s remains were not among the four bodies returned.Hamas admitted a possible “mix-up of bodies”, and late Friday handed over more human remains which the Bibas family said had been identified as Shiri’s.The family said in a statement she “was murdered in captivity and has now returned home… to rest.”Israel’s military said that, after an analysis of the remains, Palestinian militants had killed the Bibas boys, Ariel and Kfir, “with their bare hands” in November 2023.Hamas on Saturday dismissed this account as “baseless lies”.Out of 251 people taken hostage during the October 2023 attack, 62 are still in Gaza including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,215 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.burs-jj/bgs

Inspired by LeBron James and Roger Federer, Russian 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva wrapped up a fairytale week in Dubai by becoming the youngest ever WTA 1000 champion with victory over Clara Tauson on Saturday.After ousting three Grand Slam winners, including second-seeded Iga Swiatek, en route to the final, Andreeva ended Tauson’s own dream run at the tournament with a 7-6 (7/1), 6-1 victory against the Dane.It was a performance that didn’t just earn Andreeva a maiden WTA 1000 trophy, but also secured her top-10 debut with the Russian expected to rise to number nine when the new rankings are released on Monday.Andreeva admitted she did not feel her best on court during the final, but drew inspiration from interviews she watched of NBA legend James talking about how champions can find ways to win even without their A-game.”I just told myself, ‘You can either let that negativity come into your head and kill you, or you can choose to be 100 per cent mentally and fight for every point and if something doesn’t go your way, well okay fine, you forget about it and you play one point at a time’,” said Andreeva.”I’ve been listening to a lot of LeBron James interviews, and he said that, ‘It’s easy to be confident and to play good when everything goes your way, but what makes you a champion is when you’re giving your best when you don’t feel great’. So that’s what I tried to do today.”Andreeva also revealed she has been watching highlights from Roger Federer’s 2017 Australian Open final victory over Rafael Nadal before her matches this week, taking cues from the Swiss great.”I was watching some highlights. I was like, ‘Damn, how can he play like this? This is something extraordinary’,” she said.Tauson had been a giant-slayer herself in Dubai, knocking out world number one Aryna Sabalenka on her way to the biggest final of her career.The 22-year-old entered the clash with Andreeva leading the tour with 15 match-wins so far this season.She was looking to add a second title to her tally in 2025, and fourth overall, but Andreeva had other ideas, as she overcame her big-hitting opponent in one hour and 46 minutes of all-court prowess.  In the youngest WTA 1000 final since the category was introduced in 2009, Andreeva played a near-perfect opening-set tiebreak to take the lead after 60 minutes of play.- ‘I’d like to thank me!’ -She upped the ante in the second set, breaking twice for a 5-1 advantage and served out the win at the first time of asking.On Monday, Andreeva will become the first 17-year-old to be ranked in the top 10 since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007.During the trophy ceremony, Andreeva congratulated Tauson and thanked her coach Conchita Martinez and her family for their support. The affable teenager then surprised the crowd by paying credit to herself.”Last but not least, I would like to thank me. I know what I have been dealing with so I want to thank me for always believing in me, I want to thank me for never quitting and always dealing with the pressure,” said Andreeva. “Today it was not easy but I chose to be there 100 percent, so I thank myself for that.”Besides the 1,000 ranking points she received for winning the Dubai crown, Andreeva pocketed $597,000 in prize money, which she says she will hand over to her father, given she is still 17 and doesn’t manage her own finances.The Russian had set a goal for herself before the start of the season to finish the year ranked in the top 10 – a target she has now checked off her list in just the second month of her campaign.Tauson confessed she ran out of steam at the end of a taxing week, and revealed she had been spending almost three hours each day with the tournament physios to deal with various physical issues.”I can’t tell you where it doesn’t hurt right now,” said the Dane.

Japan’s Forever Young hunted down Hong Kong racing royalty Romantic Warrior to land the world’s richest race, the $20 million Saudi Cup in Riyadh on Saturday.Romantic Warrior is the highest-earning racehorse of all time, turning up at the Saudi capital with almost $23 million (22m euros) in the bank.The seven-year-old gelding looked destined to add significantly to his prize pot when he went well clear round the home turn in this his first ever outing on dirt.Under his regular New Zealand jockey James McDonald, Romantic Warrior set sail for home, dollar signs flashing.But Ryusei Sakai on board Forever Young went in hot pursuit.The pair relentlessly closed the three length-gap, passing Romantic Warrior 50 metres from the post.”Unbelievable,” beamed winning trainer Yoshito Yahagi.”Romantic Warrior is such a strong horse, we respected him but our horse was better today.”When Romantic Warrior passed us, I thought we could still come back,” he added.

Family and friends of released Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov clapped, burst into tears and popped bottles of champagne as they watched him walk free on Saturday after being handed over by Hamas in Gaza.Shem Tov was among six Israeli captives freed by Palestinian militants as part of the seventh hostage-prisoner swap to take place under the first phase of a fragile truce which took effect last month.Militants released four hostages seized in Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and two men who had been held captive for a decade.Images published by the military showed an elated Shem Tov reuniting with his parents at a reception centre inside Israel.”You have no idea how much I’ve dreamt of you!” he told them mid-embrace. “So have we,” his parents replied. “You are your mother’s life,” Shelly Shem Tov told her son.Earlier in the day, Hamas militants had paraded Shem Tov along with Eliya Cohen and Omer Wenkert on stage in central Gaza’s Nuseirat area, where they waved and held release certificates before being handed over to the Red Cross.In the central Israeli town of Gadera, dozens of Wenkert’s friends waited on tenterhooks for his release, before celebrating with cheers and dancing.”I saw the look on his face, he’s calm, he knows he’s coming back home. He knows his friends and family wait for him,” said Wenkert’s friend Rory Grosz.”He’s a real hero. He’s my hero.”The first hostages released on Saturday were Tal Shoham, abducted in the 2023 attack, and Avera Mengistu, who had spent more than 10 years in captivity in Gaza.The pair appeared pale and dazed as they were brought onto a rainy stage in the south Gaza city of Rafah.Dozens of relatives, friends and supporters of Mengistu cheered and clapped as they watched footage of his release in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.”We feel like we’re on cloud nine, overwhelmed with happiness — it’s a day of celebration,” said relative Gili Elias, describing the moment as “closure”.Mengistu’s family said in a statement that they had endured more than a decade of “unimaginable suffering” during his captivity.Images published by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed Mengistu embracing his family as he arrived at an Israeli reception centre.- ‘Long-awaited moment’ -Emotions ran high in the Israeli commercial hub of Tel Aviv, where hundreds gathered in intermittent rain to watch the captives’ releases in the plaza dubbed Hostages Square.As the men walked to freedom, the crowd clapped and wept. One spectator held up a placard reading “rain of tears and hope”.Cohen’s family said they were “overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude for Eliya’s return home after 505 long and torturous days in captivity.””Seeing him today strengthens us and gives us great hope for the long rehabilitation process ahead,” the family added. A sixth captive, Hisham al-Sayed, also arrived back in Israel on Saturday after being handed over to the Red Cross following nearly 10 years in captivity.”The Sayed family is moved by Hisham’s return home,” they said in a statement. “After nearly a decade of fighting for Hisham’s return, the long-awaited moment has arrived.”In exchange for the hostages, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel would free around 600 inmates on Saturday, most of them Gazans arrested during the war.Hamas and its allies took 251 people captive during the attack that sparked the war. There are 62 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

Palestinian militants freed six Israeli hostages on Saturday, with hundreds of Palestinian prisoners expected to be released in exchange under a fragile Gaza truce that is nearing the end of its first phase.The release of the last group of living hostages under the truce’s first phase caps an emotional two days in Israel, where the remains of another hostage, Shiri Bibas, have been identified after the initial handover of a different body.Bibas and her two young sons, among dozens taken captive during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered more than 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip, had become symbols of the ordeal suffered by the Israeli hostages.At a ceremony in Nuseirat, central Gaza, masked Hamas militants brought onto a stage Eliya Cohen, 27, Omer Shem Tov, 22, and Israeli-Argentine Omer Wenkert, 23.An AFP correspondent said they waved while holding release certificates before their handover to the Red Cross and return to Israeli soil.At a similar ceremony in Rafah, southern Gaza, militants handed over Tal Shoham, 40, and Avera Mengistu, 38, who both appeared dazed.Shoham was made to address the gathering, flanked by masked gunmen dressed all in black.In the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, hundreds who gathered at a site known as “Hostages Square” applauded and weeped as they watched a live broadcast of the releases.A sixth hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, 37, was later released and taken back to Israeli territory, the military said.Sayed, a Bedouin Muslim, and Mengistu, an Ethiopian Jew, had been held in Gaza for about a decade after they entered the territory individually.”Our family has endured 10 years and five months of unimaginable suffering”, Mengistu’s family said in a statement.Sayed’s family called it “a long-awaited moment” and said they were “moved”.Relatives of Shoham wept and embraced as they watched his handover, video released by Israel’s government showed.”We saw that Tal seems well considering the circumstances. An enormous weight is lifted from us,” the family of the Austrian-Israeli dual national said in a statement.The releases came under the first phase of a ceasefire deal which began on January 19 and is due to expire in early March. – Well-practised ceremony -Under a cold winter rain in Rafah, and in Nuseirat, Hamas staged a show of force after months of bombardment and strikes that killed the group’s top leaders.In what has become a well-practised ceremony since the truce began, stages were set up in front of large posters promoting the militants’ cause or praising fallen fighters.Some fighters held rifles, others rocket launchers, as nationalistic Palestinian music blared.The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the hostage-prisoner exchanges, has repeatedly appealed for handovers to take place in a dignified manner.The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel would free on Saturday 602 inmates, most of them Gazans taken into custody during the war, as part of the latest exchange.The ceasefire has so far seen 24 living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinians released from Israeli jails.On Thursday the first transfer of hostages’ bodies took place under the truce.But there was anger in Israel after analysis had concluded that Shiri Bibas’s remains were not among the four bodies returned.Hamas then admitted a possible “mix-up of bodies”, which it attributed to Israeli bombing of the area.Late Friday the Red Cross confirmed the transfer of more human remains to Israel “at the request of both parties”.Early Saturday, the Bibas family said in a statement that after an identification process, “we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest.”- Domestic pressure -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — under domestic pressure over his handling of the war and the hostages — vowed Hamas would pay “the full price” for what he termed a violation of the truce deal over the return of Shiri Bibas.Israel’s military said that, after an analysis of the remains, Palestinian militants killed the Bibas boys, Ariel and Kfir, “with their bare hands” in November 2023.The family on Saturday said it has “not received any such details from official sources”.Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed them and their mother early in the war.Out of 251 people taken hostage during the October 2023 attack, 62 are still in Gaza including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,215 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.

Hamas paraded five Israeli hostages, some looking dazed and others elated, before cheering crowds at two meticulously recorded ceremonies in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.In the first well-rehearsed morning ceremony in Rafah, Hamas fighters stood in an orderly fashion as they handed over hostages Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu, who walked with apparent difficulty, to the Red Cross. As in previous hostage releases, the men were given certificates in Hebrew to mark the end of their captivity before being helped into vehicles from the Red Cross, which acts as an intermediary, an AFP journalist reported.Hamas fighters from the group’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, wearing fatigues, balaclavas and green headbands, formed a cordon around the area to hold back the crowd of onlookers.In a similarly choreographed ceremony later in Nuseirat, hostages Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov and Omer Wenkert took the stage with shaved heads, smiling at a cheering crowd of hundreds.The trio stood briefly on stage alongside Hamas fighters, waving at the crowd while a camera drone and a photographer captured the moment.- Display of strength -Shem Tov, who was abducted on October 7 from the Nova music festival in southern Israel, waved and blew kisses to the crowd before kissing two of his Hamas captors on their keffiyeh-wrapped heads.Israel’s military said later it had received a sixth Israeli hostage, Hisham al-Sayed, who was captured in Gaza a decade ago.At both ceremonies, the Palestinian militants put on a display of strength. In Rafah, some held Kalashnikov assault rifles and others flaunted hand-held rocket launchers, while Hamas’s green flag flew around the square on buildings destroyed by war in the Palestinian territory.Fidaa Awda, a resident of the southern city who attended the ceremony told AFP: “We say and continue to say that we are with the resistance, we are with the valiant Brigades, we are with the fighters.”On stage in southern Gaza, in front of a table draped in camouflage cloth, US-made assault rifles reportedly seized from Israeli soldiers in combat were displayed.Behind the table, a slogan in Arabic, English and Hebrew read: “We are the flood. We are the extreme strength” – War slogans -The slogan referenced Operation Al-Aqsa flood, the name used by Hamas and its allied Palestinian factions for their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.Other banners depicted fallen Hamas military commanders, including former armed wing chief Mohammed Deif, killed in an Israeli air strike in 2024.A poster below the stage read “and the red freedom has a door, struck by every bloodied hand”.The sentence is a verse from a 1926 anti-colonial poem by Egyptian poet Ahmad Shawqi which slain Hamas leader and October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar was seen reciting in a video taken during the Gaza war. Some in the crowd of hundreds stood on large chunks of concrete from nearby buildings demolished by bombs, others on the upper floors of buildings whose walls appeared damaged by the war.One man held a young boy clad in military fatigues and a Hamas headband as militants in arms paraded on the back of pickup trucks.In a statement, Hamas praised the hostage releases and said that the Israeli public had two options.”Either they receive their prisoners in coffins, as happened on Thursday, due to Netanyahu’s arrogance, or they embrace their prisoners alive in commitment to the (Palestinian) resistance’s conditions.”Sixty-two hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack are still being held in Gaza, including 35 who the Israeli military says are dead.

One of China’s leading electric vehicle makers XPeng plans to double the number of countries in which the company operates by the end of this year, its CEO said Saturday.Founded in 2014, XPeng is one of the Chinese firms in the sector with the strongest international ambitions, focusing in particular on cutting-edge technologies and design.”We …

China’s EV maker XPeng eyes doubling global presence by year’s end Read More »

A crowd cheered as masked militants brought two pale and dazed Israeli captives onto a rainy stage in front of cameras for the seventh hostage-prisoner exchange of the Gaza ceasefire Saturday.Around the stage, Hamas fighters stood in an orderly fashion in the southern Gazan city of Rafah as the pair were handed over to the Red Cross, with Avera Mengistu, one of the two freed men, walking with apparent difficulty.Like the hostages at previous liberations, Tal Shoham and Mengistu were handed liberation certificates in Hebrew before being helped into vehicles from the Red Cross, which acts as an intermediary, an AFP journalist reported.A Hamas source told AFP that the Palestinian Islamist movement planned to release the other four living hostages from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza later in the morning.In Rafah and Nuseirat, the militant group had prepared for a now well-rehearsed ceremony, building stages to parade the hostages to be released in front of large posters and billboards advertising its cause or praising fallen fighters.In Rafah, Hamas fighters from the group’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Bridages, wearing fatigues, balaclavas and green headbands stood in a cordon around the handover area to keep the crowd out.In a display of strength, some held Kalashnikov assault rifles and others flaunted hand-held rocket launchers, while Hamas’ green flag flew around the square on buildings destroyed by war in the Palestinian territory.Fidaa Awda, a resident of Rafah who attended the ceremony told AFP: “We say and continue to say that we are with the resistance, we are with the valiant Brigades, we are with the fighters.”- War slogans -In front of a table covered by camouflage cloth on stage, US-made assault rifles of the kind the Israeli military uses were displayed, allegedly taken from Israeli soldiers in combat.Behind the table, a conspicuously placed slogan read “We are the flood. We are the extreme strength” in Arabic, English and Hebrew. The slogan referenced Operation Al-Aqsa flood, the name used by Hamas and its allied Palestinian factions for their October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.Other banners showed fallen Hamas military commanders including former armed wing chief Muhammad Deif, killed by an Israeli air strike in 2024.A poster below the stage read “and the red freedom has a door, struck by every bloodied hand”.The sentence is a verse from a 1926 anti-colonial poem by Egyptian poet Ahmad Shawqi which slain Hamas leader and October 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar was seen reciting in a video taken during the Gaza war. All around the square, hundreds of Gazans had gathered to watch the ceremony on this foggy, rainy winter morning.Some stood on large chunks of concrete from nearby buildings demolished by bombs, others on the upper floors of buildings whose front walls had been torn off by explosions.One man held a young boy clad in military fatigues and a Hamas headband as militants in arms paraded on the back of pickup trucks.In a statement, Hamas praised the hostage releases and said that the Israeli public had two options.”Either they receive their prisoners in coffins, as happened on Thursday, due to Netanyahu’s arrogance, or they embrace their prisoners alive in commitment to the (Palestinian) resistance’s conditions.”Sixty-five hostages taken during Hamas’s October 7 attack are still being held in Gaza, including 35 who the Israeli military says are dead.

Palestinian militants on Saturday freed two Israeli hostages, among the last live captives eligible for release under the first phase of a fragile truce that is also expected to see Palestinian prisoners released.Freedom for the captives caps an emotional two days in Israel, where the family of another hostage, Shiri Bibas, earlier on Saturday confirmed receipt of her remains. Bibas and her two young sons had become symbols of the ordeal suffered by Israeli hostages since the Gaza war began. Palestinian militants seized dozens of captives during their unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel which triggered more than 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip.Militants escorted Tal Shoham and Avera Mengistu onto a stage in Rafah, southern Gaza. Shoham was made to address the gathering, flanked by armed and masked fighters dressed all in black, before both men were handed over to the Red Cross which then drove them away in a convoy.Israeli security forces took custody of the men and returned them home to Israeli territory, the military said.In the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, hundreds gathered at a site known as ‘Hostages Square’ reacted with applause, some appearing to weep, as they watched a broadcast of the release.Four other hostages are to be freed on Saturday morning in a separate ceremony in central Gaza.Israeli campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum had published the names of the six Israelis to be freed. The list included Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert and Hisham al-Sayed as well as Mengistu and Shoham.Sayed and Mengistu had been held in Gaza for around a decade.The hostages were freed under the first phase of a ceasefire deal which began on January 19 and is due to expire in early March. A Hamas source told AFP that the Islamist group planned to also release four hostages from central Gaza’s Nuseirat later in the morning.- Well-rehearsed ceremony -At both locations the militants prepared for a now well-rehearsed ceremony, building stages in front of large posters advertising the militants’ cause or praising fallen fighters.The Red Cross has repeatedly appealed for handovers to take place in a dignified manner.Under a cold winter rain in Rafah, Hamas staged a show of force after months of bombardment and strikes that killed the group’s top leaders. Some fighters held automatic weapons, others rocket launchers, as nationalistic Palestinian music blared.Hamas’s green flag flew around the square on buildings destroyed by the war.The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel would free 602 inmates on Saturday as part of the exchange.A spokeswoman for the NGO told AFP that most were Gazans arrested after the war began. She added that some of the prisoners would be deported outside of Israel and the Palestinian territories after their release. Those expected to be expelled were serving heavy sentences.The ceasefire has so far seen 21 living Israeli hostages freed from Gaza in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.Saturday’s release of living hostages followed the first transfer on Thursday of hostages’ bodies.Hamas had said Shiri Bibas’s remains were among the four bodies returned on Thursday, but Israeli analysis concluded they were not in fact hers, sparking an outpouring of grief and anger.Hamas then admitted “the possibility of an error or mix-up of bodies”, which it attributed to Israeli bombing of the area.Late Friday the Red Cross confirmed the transfer of more human remains to Israel “at the request of both parties” but did not say whose they were.”After the identification process at the Institute of Forensic Medicine, this morning we received the news we feared the most. Our Shiri was murdered in captivity and has now returned home to her sons, husband, sister, and all her family to rest,” the Bibas family said in a statement.On Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — under domestic pressure over his handling of the war and the hostages — vowed to “ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement”.- ‘No forgiveness’ -On Friday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said, after an analysis of the remains, that Palestinian militants had killed the Bibas boys, Ariel and Kfir, “with their bare hands” in November 2023.Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed them and their mother early in the war.Shiri’s sister-in-law, Ofri Bibas, said Friday that the family was “not seeking revenge right now”, while levelling a measure of the blame at Netanyahu, telling him there would be “no forgiveness” for abandoning the mother and her young sons.A fourth body, that of Oded Lifshitz, 83, was also returned Thursday.Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack that sparked the war. There are 65 hostages still in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,215 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,319 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.