Hamas returned to Israel bodies of four hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 | LIVE

U.S. and the region

According to Middle East Eye, a U.S. official told Al Jazeera that Israel is pressuring Washington to take a more active role in the Middle East, warning that if the U.S. does not comply, Israel will act unilaterally.

The official also acknowledged an unspoken pause in hostilities between the Houthis and American forces, stating, "We are monitoring their compliance with the order." He said that any renewed Houthi attacks would prompt a U.S. military response, adding that President Donald Trump had granted military leaders full authority to retaliate against any perceived aggression.

Civil Defense recovered the remains of yet another victim in Khiam, in Marjayoun district, where dozens of residents went missing during the Israeli occupation of the village. DNA tests will be carried out, Civil Defense stated, stressing that the search is continuing in close coordination with the Lebanese Army.

For more than two months now, search and rescue operations have been underway in the southern Lebanese village, which was the site of intense battles between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers. During the war, Israel was unable to capture the village, but during the cease-fire it fully occupied Khiam and demolished entire neighborhoods.

The United States' envoy to the Middle East said that President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza was not about evicting Palestinians, and the conversation about Gaza's future was ostensibly being shifted toward how to create a better future for Palestinians, Reuters reports.

"When the President talks about this, it means he wants to shake up everyone's thinking, and think about what is compelling and what is the best solution for the Palestinian people," Steven Witkoff told the FII Institute conference in Miami. "For instance, do they want to live in a home there, or would they rather have an opportunity to resettle in some sort of better place, to have jobs, upside and financial prospects," he added.

Ever since the first Nakba, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced from their homes and lands with the creation of the state of Israel, all of Palestine has been marked by the struggle of Palestinians to remain on the land inhabited by their ancestors. 

Gaza

The family of Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz confirmed that he was among the four bodies returned by Hamas in Gaza.

"We received with great sorrow the official and bitter news confirming the identification of the body of our dear Oded," the family said in a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. Lifshitz was 83 years old when he was abducted on Oct. 7, 2023.

Gaza

The Israeli government accused Hamas of maintaining a "cult of death" after the Palestinian militant group staged a handover of coffins believed to contain the remains of four Israeli hostages, according to AFP.

"Hamas is not a resistance movement. Hamas fosters a cult of death, murders, tortures, and parades with corpses," Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said at a press briefing.

Gaza

The convoy carrying the coffins of four Israeli hostages, including those of the Bibas children, arrived in the afternoon at the Abu Kabir mortuary in Tel Aviv, according to AFP journalists.

Gaza

Nine Arab leaders are meeting in Riyadh on Friday to discuss a plan to respond to a proposal by Donald Trump for a U.S. takeover of the Gaza Strip, devastated by 15 months of war, and the relocation of its Palestinian population to Jordan and Egypt.

The leaders of the six Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain), Iraq, Jordan and Egypt, will discuss an “Egyptian reconstruction plan” for Gaza, a Saudi official close to the government told AFP.

“This Arab summit will undoubtedly be the most important one concerning the Arab world and the Palestinian cause in decades,” says Umer Karim, an expert on Saudi foreign policy from the University of Birmingham.

Yemen

Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani has called for the arrest of a group of Yemeni Houthi leaders, allied with Iran, who he says will attend the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut on Feb. 23, Reuters reported.

The Houthis have not officially announced that a delegation will attend the funeral, but the Al-Massirah television channel, which they run, has indicated that a Yemeni delegation will take part.

Gaza

The Israeli army has received “the bodies of the hostages” returned by Hamas, AFP reported.

“The bodies of the hostages were handed over inside the Gaza Strip to representatives” of the army and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, the military said in a statement.

South Lebanon

Two days after the official end of the cease-fire arrangements between Lebanon and Israel, the situation along the border remains relatively calm, with no security incidents reported. However, yesterday, the Israeli army fired at several border towns, injuring two people and carrying out airstrikes, including a drone strike on a car that killed the son of Aita al-Shaab’s municipal president.

Gaza

The return of deceased hostages to Israel is a national tragedy, and “our hearts are devastated,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog said as the country awaited the return of the bodies of the Bibas children and their mother, AFP reported.

“Agony. Suffering. There are no words,” Herzog wrote on X. “Our hearts — the hearts of an entire nation — are devastated. On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home alive.”

Gaza

More than $50 billion will be needed to rebuild Gaza after 15 months of conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to an assessment published Tuesday by the United Nations, the European Union, and the World Bank, Reuters reported.

Years of reconstruction work will be required, including the removal of unexploded ordnance and the clearance of millions of tons of debris.

Gaza

A convoy carrying coffins believed to contain the remains of four Israeli hostages, including the Bibas children and their mother, entered Israel from Gaza, an AFP journalist reported.

The convoy passed where dozens of people had gathered, waving Israeli and yellow flags — the color symbolizing the hostages. The bodies will be transported to the Abu Kabir National Forensic Institute, where, according to the Israeli army, an “identification procedure” will take place.

Gaza

ICRC workers are loading four coffins on Thursday morning, each with a photo of a hostage to be returned to Israel as part of a new prisoner exchange with Hamas, AFP journalists reported from Khan Younis (southern Gaza Strip).

Gaza

The Hostage Families Forum said last night that it had been informed of the death of the two Bibas children and their mother, as well as that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, without specifying the circumstances.

The family of the two children, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were four years and eight and a half months old at the time of their abduction, called in a statement on Wednesday evening for “no eulogies to be given for (their) loved ones until the final identification has been confirmed.”

Hamas had announced in November 2023 that Shiri Bibas and her two children had died in an Israeli bombardment in Gaza, but Israel never confirmed it.

Gaza

Hamas is due to hand over four hostage remains to Israel today, including those of Ariel and Kfir Bibas and their mother Shiri, reports AFP. The entire Bibas family had been abducted on Oct. 7 from the Kibbutz Nir Oz settlement, on the edge of the Gaza Strip.

The father of the two children, 35-year-old Yarden Bibas, was released from the Palestinian territory on Feb. 1.

Gaza

The remains of the three members of the Bibas family, along with that of a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, are to be returned by Hamas in exchange for the release, scheduled for Saturday, of Palestinians held by Israel.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us for today's live coverage of the cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza and the events in the region. Make sure to read today's Morning Brief to catch up on yesterday's key events.