The hostages are released
Israeli security forces on Wednesday eliminated Muhammad Zubeidi, the leader of the terrorist force in the northern West Bank's Jenin refugee camp, during counterterrorism operations in the area. Zabeidi, who is considered a senior operative in Islamic Jihad, was involved in a series of attacks on Israelis.
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The joint IDF-Shin Bet operation in Jenin lasted most of the night. As part of the operation, the soldiers surrounded the building where Zabeidi was holed up with other terrorists and fired shoulder-fired missiles, grenades and explosives at the building. Some 17 wanted persons were arrested in total, and weapons were seized. An IDF aircraft also attacked an armed terrorist squad from the air in Jenin, and the soldiers destroyed an underground shaft and equipment used in the production of ammunition.
Hamas claimed that Shiri Bibas and her two children, 10-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel, who were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, are dead. The terrorist organization has not provided proof, and Israel has not signaled so far that it is true. The IDF said that they are examining the reliability of the information, and that they spoke with members of the Bibas family and informed them of the report. The IDF statement also stated that "responsibility for the safety of all hostages in the Gaza Strip rests fully with the terrorist organization Hamas. Hamas endangers the hostages, including nine children. Hamas is required to immediately return them to Israel." In recent weeks, since the outbreak of the war, Hamas has published false claims, and the credibility of the claim is unclear. The IDF spokesman said this weekthat they were kidnapped together with their father by Hamas, but today they are being held by another terrorist organization in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will return to fighting in Gaza after the return of the hostages. "There is no way we will not return to fighting until the end. This is my policy, the entire cabinet stands behind it, the entire government stands behind it, the soldiers stand behind it, the people stand behind it - this is exactly what we will do," Netanyahu said in a video posted on his social media accounts. "From the beginning of the war, I set three goals - the elimination of Hamas, the return of all our hostages, and to ensure that Gaza will never again be a threat to Israel. These three goals remain in place. In the last week, we achieved a very great achievement - the return of many dozens of our hostages. Before this week It would have sounded imaginary, but we achieved it."
A senior official said on Wednesday that Israel was willing to agree to extending the truce as long as Hamas provides a daily list of hostages to be freed, resulting in the additional 10 days agreed to by the government. Earlier Hamas said it was willing to release more hostages in a four-day extension of the agreement, according to a report on AFP. The terror group also said they would be releasing more Russian nationals as a gesture to President Vladimir Putin.
In Australia, pro-Palestinian protesters are blocking the entrance to a hotel where a delegation of families of Israelis who were murdered and kidnapped are staying. The group came to Australia for an informational campaign initiated by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry and in conjunction with the Foreign Ministry. Several dozen people came to protest the delegation after its whereabouts became known. The delegation was directed to the police station, and officials are discussing further security operations to protect them. The hotel was searched by the local police forces and the security bodies accompanying the delegation.
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Armed Hamas terrorists with hostages being handed over to the Red Cross on Tuesday
(Photo: AFP)
The cabinet met overnight after negotiations to extend the agreement to bring about the release of hostages held by Hamas in exchange for a further period of truce, ended in Qatar. The talks included Mossad Chief David Barnea, CIA chief William Burns and Egyptian Intelligence chief Abbas Kame.
American officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Biden administration told Israel it must avoid "significant further displacement" of and mass casualties among Palestinian civilians if it resumes its offensive in Gaza.
Yocheved Lifschitz, the 85-year-old resident of Nir Oz who was abducted by the Hamas terrorists and released with another captive two weeks later, said Hamas leader Yahyah Sinwar had spent days where she was being held. "I asked him if he was not ashamed of what he had done to people who had always supported peace but he did not answer," she said in an interview. Lifschitz joined the families of hostages in Tel Aviv, where they were calling for the release of all those still held in Gaza. Her husband Oded, who is 83, is still being held by Hamas.
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Freed hostage Yocheved Lifschitz with her grandchildren in Tel Aviv
(Photo: Dana Kopel)
A pediatric physician at the Dana Children's hospital in the Ichilov Medical Center said on Wednesday that the children who were held captive by Hamas and were released, had lost over 15% of their body weight while in captivity, due to inadequate and often insufficient food.
In Washington the House of Representatives passed with overwhelming support, a resolution affirming Israel's right to exist. Only two nay votes were cast, one by Democrat Rashida Tlaib who said the resolution ignored the rights of the Palestinian people and the other by Republican Thomas Massie from Kentucky who opposed equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism.
On the northern border, images of Hezbollah fighters returning to the area spread on social media. On Tuesday, Chief of Staff Herzi Halevy said Israel was committed to providing security for residents living near the border with Lebanon.
On Tuesday, ten Israeli hostages, who have been held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for 52 days, and two Thai nationals who also were released on Tuesday have undergone an initial medical assessment and are being flown by Israeli Air Force helicopters to hospitals where they will be reunited with their families.
The 10 hostages, including nine women, were transferred Tuesday as part of the hostage exchange agreement: Some 50 Israeli hostages – women and children - were released during the first four days of a cease-fire in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and youths held in Israeli prisons and Israel agreed to extend the cease-fire by a day for every 10 hostages released up to 100 hostages total.
Mia Leimberg, 17, from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was the first released hostage to be identified, seen in a photo published by the terrorist organization; she was seen in the photo holding her dog, which also disappeared from the kibbutz on October 7.
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Mia Leimberg, 17, from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak is one of the released hostages, as seen in a photo published by Hamas
The nine women who were released on Tuesday are: Mia's mother Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and her aunt Clara Marman, 64; Ditza Heiman, 84; Tami Metzger, 78; Ofelia Roitman, 77, and Ada Sagi, 75, who were kidnapped from Nir Oz; Noralin Babadilla Agojo, 60, and Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, 36, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim; and Merav Tal, 53, a day after the sons of her partner were released. In addition, two Thai hostages were released from captivity. The husbands of Tami, Rimon and Merav, are still in captivity in Gaza, and Noralin's spouse was murdered in the massacre.
The terrorists are still holding 146 hostages in Gaza, including nine teenagers and children.
These are the stories of the hostages who were released on Tuesday:
Ditza Heiman, 84, and a founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz, worked for many years as a social worker. Contact with her was cut off at 10 a.m. on October 7, after she told her family members that she entered the secure room in her house. In the afternoon her daughter called her, and heard voices in Arabic on the other end of the phone.
Her granddaughter, Ynet reporter Shani Zohar Shadma, spoke with her grandmother's neighbor Hayuta Zilberman, who told her: "Ditza is the person I perhaps admire most in Nir Oz. For her independence, for her strength, for the life decisions she made." Today, after 53 days in captivity, Ditza returns to Israel.
Tammy Metzger
Tami Metzger, 78, was kidnapped from her home in Nir Oz along with her husband Yoram, 80. "At 8:50 a.m. we received a message from them, since then we haven't heard anything," said her granddaughter Ofir. Tami was released from captivity in the fifth day of exchanges, but her husband - like dozens of other members of Nir Oz - is still in captivity.
Noralin Agojo
Noralin (Natalie) Ajojo, 60, from Yehud, went on the eve of Simchat Torah with her partner Gideon Babani to the home of close friends, for the 70th anniversary celebrations of Kibbutz Nirim. They spent the night in the kibbutz. In the morning, Gideon was murdered by Hamas terrorists, and Noralin was kidnapped to Gaza.
Her little brother, Akso, remembered the last conversation he had with her, before losing contact. "She called before 7:00 a.m. and said she was scared. 'We just wanted to celebrate. I'm shaking, I might not come home,' she told me." After being informed that she was included in the list of hostages to be released, he said: "I pray that she is okay after so long in captivity, I have not known anything since the Saturday when it all began."
Ada Sagi
Her apartment was brutally destroyed after the terrorists set fire to her secure room and the destruction is visible in every corner, but Ada Sagi, 75, from Nir Oz, who fought the terrorists and did not give up, is returning home Tuesday after 53 days in captivity.
Ada, a mother of three and grandmother of six whose husband died last year, was apparently injured in the Hamas attack. "She was a panther, she collected the pieces of her heart, of all of us, and continued," said her daughter Navit about the struggle after her father's death.
The daughter said that on October 7, "Mom thought it was another normal morning of shooting, and entered the emergency secure room." At 8:40 a.m. I talked to her, and she said that there were a lot of rocket interceptions, and that there was a rumor about a terrorist near the clinic. She told me it was a rumor, but I think she already realized it wasn't a rumor. She even had time to send a WhatsApp message to her neighbor and then the connection with her was cut off. In the evening they opened the secure room and she wasn't there. There was blood, and we understood that she was injured and that there was a struggle, she fought. She didn't appear in any of the Hamas videos, so we didn't really know what happened to her." Today Ada was released from captivity.
Merav Tal
A day after 16-year-old Or Yaakov and his brother Yagil, 12, were released from captivity as part of the fourth round and returned to Israel, Merav Tal, 53, the partner of their father Yair, is returning today. She was kidnapped from Nir Oz together with Yair, but he remains in captivity.
On October 8, Tomer Tal-Alfasi, Merav's daughter, watched a video filmed by the terrorists who infiltrated the kibbutz, documenting the chilling moments of the kidnapping, in which Merav begs not to be kidnapped.
"They are inside the house, they shot into our room. Yaya is holding the door of the secure room," Merav Tal recorded herself as saying when the terrorists tried to enter the room. "They shot at us, Yaya is wounded. Help me." Immediately after that, Tal sent another chilling message: "Help me, they're already in our home. Help me, help me. Call the police." Today Merav is again on Israeli territory, after 53 days of hell in the Gaza tunnels.
Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav
A month after appearing in Hamas' psychological terror video, Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, 36, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim, is returning to Israel. The video also featured Daniel Aloni, who was also released, and Yelena Trupanov, who is still in captivity.
Rimon and her husband Yagev Buchshtav, were kidnapped from their apartment in the kibbutz. Contact with Yagev 's parents, who live near the couple, was cut off in the morning hours of October 7 while they were also hiding in their secure room. A few hours later, when Yagev's father arrived at his son and daughter-in-law's apartment accompanied by military forces, he found it empty with bullets on the floor. The five dogs and four cats that the two raised were also not found.
Ophelia Roitman
Ophelia Roitman, 77, from Nir Oz, mother of three children and grandmother of nine grandchildren, sent her last message on October 7 at 9:37 a.m., in which she asked for help and said that the terrorists were in her house.
The struggle for the release of Ophelia, an educator who was for many years a 1st-2nd grade teacher, also reached her homeland Argentina, from where she immigrated to Israel in 1985.
In every match broadcast by her nephew Hernan Feler, an Argentine soccer broadcaster, he delivers a monologue in which he demanded the release of the hostages, including his beloved aunt. Among other things, he called for their return at the start of the match between the Argentina and Uruguay teams in the World Cup qualifiers.
Gabriela and Mia Leimberg, and Clara Marman
Gabriela Leimberg, 59, from Jerusalem, and her daughter Mia, 17, returned home Tuesday, together with Clara Marman, 64, Gabriela's sister, who hosted them at her home in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7. The big surprise was that Mia was holding her dog, Bella , which had not been seen since that Saturday. But brother Fernando Marman, 60, and Clara's partner, Louis Har, 70, remain in captivity.
They were all together on October 7 in the secure room of Marman's home in Nir Yitzhak, as part of a birthday celebration. "At about 11:00 a.m., terrorists entered there. We know this from the text messages they sent - they wrote that they entered their home and broke things, sent kisses and after then the contact was lost," said their relatives.
Clara Marman, who immigrated to Israel from Argentina, is a kindergarten teacher by profession and took care of all the children in the kibbutz for 30 years. "She is a mythical kindergarten teacher who taught everyone," said her daughter Maayan Siegel-Korn.
Gabriela Leimberg, who also immigrated from Argentina three decades ago, is the director of the Havat Eyal community integration center for people with disabilities in Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem, and for the past 25 years has been considered the "mother" of dozens of graduates on the autism spectrum at the center. "She enveloped everyone with love and sensitivity," said Lihi Lapid, president of the SHEKEL - Inclusion for People with Disabilities Association.
Gabrila's daughter Mia is a 12th grader at the arts high school, where they hung a sign: "We are waiting for you Mia, come back to us." Now the mother can return to the integration center, and her daughter - to the high school.
The families of eight of the Israeli hostages who were released from captivity in Gaza arrived at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital, including a family that arrived by helicopter from Eilat. The hospital was also prepared to treat Mia Leimberg's dog that returned with her, and they emphasized that they would not be separated. The only hostages who did not come to Sheba are Buchshtav, who was set to go to Ichilov Hospital, and Tal who was set go to the hospital where the sons of her partner, Yair, who is still in captivity are being hospitalized.
Mia was abducted together with her mother Gabriela from her aunt Clara Marman's house in Nir Yitzhak, and Clara and her partner Louis were also abducted. Uncle Fernando Marman was also kidnapped with them. Along with Mia, her dog was also returned, which was apparently kidnapped along with her.
Just an hour before the start of the transfer, hundreds of people gathered to participate in a demonstration of support for the Bibas family in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv with orange balloons in their hands, this after it was learned that the four members of the family 10-month-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel and parents Shiri and Yarden- will not be released Tuesday.
Ofri Bibas Levy, Yarden's sister, said: "For 53 days they have been held captive by Hamas in Gaza, we do not know if 10-month-old Kfir and Ariel are with their parents. Who hugs them when they cry? We do not know if they have food, if they shower them. We know where they are – Hamas kidnapped them and must return them immediately. The responsibility for their health lies directly with Hamas. Hamas – who are your enemies? Kidnapping children, what are your values? Is this acceptable according to Islam?"
Earlier on Tuesday, President Isaac Herzog met with Shoshan Haran, who was abducted from her home during the Hamas massacre on October 7, along with six other members of her family from Kibbutz Be'eri. Shoshan was released on Saturday with her daughter Adi Shoham, 38, and Adi’s children Yahel, 3, and Naveh, 8, along with Noam Avigdori, 12, and her mother Sharon Avigdori, 52. The seventh family member, Tal Shoham, is still in captivity.
Herzog hugged her and told her: "You have no idea how excited I am to see you, and your family. You have become a model, all the hostages have become a model for admiration, pain and identification. I am sure they will return. I am convinced and know that there is a tremendous international effort, rare in its strength. There will come moments of complex decisions, but everything must be done to release them and return them home."
Shoshan told Herzog: "I'm already here, but there are many Israelis left in Gaza and we have to do everything possible to get them all back. I knew on the first day of captivity that within 20 hours my family would organize, form a strategy and start acting with all their might so that we could return home. I have complete faith in the state of Israel, which is also making all efforts, and has complete faith in the people of Israel to do everything they can for the return of the hostages."
First published: 07:27, 11.29.23