Israel has identified the bodies of two more hostages, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday, as US Vice President J.D. Vance sounded a buoyant note about progress in Gaza’s fragile ceasefire during a visit to Israel.
Authorities identified the deceased hostages as Arie Zalmanovich and Tamir Adar. Their bodies were transported in coffins by the Red Cross and handed over to the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.
A military ceremony attended by the chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces was planned for later in the day, Netanyahu’s office said.
Photo: Reuters
The two were killed in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas militants, which triggered the two-year war.
Since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10, the remains of 15 hostages have been returned to Israel. Thirteen more still need to be recovered in Gaza and handed over, a key element to the ceasefire agreement.
Meanwhile, the burial of more than 50 Palestinians was set for yesterday at a cemetery in Deir al-Balah, Gaza.
The bodies were displayed outside Nasser hospital in Khan Younis ahead of burial. The 50 are among the 165 bodies of Palestinians that Israel has so far handed over.
During a joint news conference with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Vance said there were challenges ahead in terms of disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza as part of the ceasefire.
“We have a very, very tough task ahead of us, which is to disarm Hamas, but rebuild Gaza, to make life better for the people of Gaza, but also to ensure that Hamas is no longer a threat to our friends in Israel,” he said.
During a news conference on Tuesday in Kiryat Gat, in southern Israel where a US-led mission is monitoring the Gaza ceasefire, Vance expressed “great optimism” that the truce would hold.
He said Washington would not set a deadline for Hamas to disarm under the deal, despite concerns in Israel that the group has seized on the halt in fighting to reassert itself in Gaza.
Netanyahu yesterday said ideas for “the day after” had been discussed.
“We’re just creating an unbelievable day after with a completely new vision of how to have the civil government, how to have the security there, who could provide that security there,” he said.
“It’s not going to be easy, but I think it’s possible... We’re really creating a peace plan and an infrastructure here where nothing existed even a week and a day ago,” he said. “That’s going to require a lot of work. It requires a lot of ingenuity.”
Vance said the Gaza deal could also pave the way for broader alliances for Israel in the Middle East.
“I think this Gaza deal is a critical piece of unlocking the Abraham Accords,” he said, referring to the series of normalization agreements between Israel and several Arab countries in 2020.
“But what it could allow is an alliance structure in the Middle East that perseveres, that endures, and that allows the good people in this region, the world, to step up and take ownership of their own backyard,” he added.
Additional reporting by AFP
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
RSS