The fate of the Bibas family renews fears of Israel-Gaza ceasefire

For 16 months, the smiling faces of Sherry Pepas and her young buildings, Ariel and Kafir were slowly receded to the background of Israeli life like them Photos – It was published on the walls and bus buses shortly after the kidnapping of the family to Gaza in October 2023 – in fading, tears and exfoliation.

On Friday, Bibses and annoying deaths were swept to the forefront of Israel’s collective awareness in an amazing and disturbing way, which led to a new warning about the long -term fate for a fragile ceasefire in Gaza. The truce seemed ready until the end of the week, as both sides were prepared for another exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, but the turmoil over the Bibas family increased doubts about the extension.

Early Friday morning, the Israeli army Declare That the body of Mrs. Pipas – nomine ReturnBesides the children of its children, by Hamas to Israel on Thursday – it appears to be someone else. The army said that the autopsy of the two boys, between the ages of 4 and 8 months at the time of their kidnapping, revealed that the terrorists had killed them in Gaza “with their bare hands.”

Musa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, said in an interview on a phone that the family was killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, and the accusation refused that a small group of militants held the hostages and the strings of the Mujahideen, killed them. However, Mr. Abu Marzouk acknowledged that Mrs. Pepas’s body may have been in Gaza by mistake, saying that Hamas members were now searching for her remains in a place where the family was buried alongside the Palestinians.

An either sides account cannot be verified independently.

The news rarely views a bout of anger and suffering in Israel from the loud days that followed The attack led by Hamas On October 7, 2023, when up to 1,200 people were killed and 251 were kidnapped, including Mrs. Pipas and her children, on the bloodiest day in Israeli history.

For the Palestinians, the destruction it caused Israel’s military response To October 7 raids – reaction, among other consequences, Digestive Palestinian burial lands and Thousands of children were killed Including some smaller than KFir Bibas – the terrorist attacks of Hamas have long been overwhelmed at the beginning of the war.

But the Israelis remain Deep shock By the October attack, the return of the children of Pepas, as well as uncertainty about their mother’s place and the unauthorized way Hamas offered their coffins On Thursday, torment revived.

In response to the army’s announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned from Israel to the language of revenge that identified his sermons in the wake of the October 7 attack.

Mr. Netanyahu said in a Registered speech To the nation on Friday morning. “We will also have revenge for us.”

The relief period was preserved from Mr. Netanyahu’s response through most of the Israeli political spectrum. “The majority of Ghazan want to kill all Israelis.” ((Voting Last fall suggested that less than 40 percent of the Palestinians in Ghazan supported the October 7 attack, a decrease from more than 70 percent in early last year).

This mixture of weakness and revenge was doubled due to the news that was overnight. Several buses Through central Israel. The vehicles were empty at that time. Commentators said that the attacks may have been a response to the continuous Israeli military operations in the occupied West BankWhich was displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes.

For some Israelis, the fate of the Pepas family stressed the need to restore the war to defeat Hamas once and forever. The current truce was assigned to extinction in early March unless Hamas and Israel were able to agree to the extension. “The only solution is to destroy Hamas, and this should not be postponed,” said Paisalel Santrich, the right -wing finance minister, said. Published on social media.

But others called for calm, on the pretext that the fate of the Bibas family embodies the reason for the truce need to extend it to bring about 70 hostages who are still detained, alive, in Gaza.

The village leadership in Nir Oz, Bibses birthplace, issued a statement on Friday that called Israel to “adhere to our values ​​and to the demands of the clear Bibas family at this moment: the issuance, not revenge. The hostages.

Isaac Herzog, the ceremonial president in Israel, too Invite To “remember our highest duty – to do everything we can to bring each of our kidnapped sisters and our brothers to the house. All of them. To the end.”

Currently, the truce seems likely to last a few days. Six Israeli hostages will be released on Saturday, and analysts said that Israel is unlikely to do anything to put their freedom. Hamas announced its names on Friday morning, with a feeling of work as usual.

Among the six Israeli citizens – Avera Mengesto and Hisham Al -Sayed – Those captured by Hamas years before the attack in 2023 after the two entered Gaza on their own. Israel said that it had received a list of the hostages specified for the release and informed their families, but it did not immediately confirm that it was the same sixth that she called Hamas.

The future appeared in the long term of the truce is less clear. According to the conditions agreed in January, the parties were supposed to start negotiations to extend the deal for nearly three weeks, but haven’t done so yet.

It was the Arab leaders Appointment to the meeting In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Friday to try to get rid of a proposal to rebuild Gaza after the war would allow the transfer of peaceful authority from Hamas to an alternative Palestinian administration.

But in Israel, analysts speculated that the government there preferred to expel Hamas by force.

“If it is up to Netanyahu and his partners in the right-wing extremist coalition, then next week-after the end of the first stage of the hostage deal with the return of four other bodies of the hostages-the way to renew the war in Gaza will be set,” Amos Harril wroteCommenting on the military affairs of Haritz, a newspaper with left -wing tendencies. “This time, they prepare, without restrictions.”

Reported by Adam Rashun in Jerusalem, Jonatan Reese In Tel Aviv, and Sheikh Ahmed Al -Gharraf In Haifa, Israel.