Hamas hands over first dead hostages

Newshour

BBC

News, Daily News

4.4 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Forensic medical experts in Tel Aviv are trying to confirm the identities and cause of death of four Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas. It is the first time Hamas has returned captives dead since the ceasefire began last month,

The bodies, taken by convoy from Gaza earlier, are believed to be those of a mother and her two young children and an elderly peace activist.

Also in the programme: As the rift deepens between the US and Europe over whether the Ukrainian president is a dictator or a democrat, how should the British prime minister handle his visit to the White House next week? and the former boss of Spanish football is found guilty of kissing a player without her consent.

(Photo shows a young woman holding an Israeli flag reacting as a convoy transports the bodies of deceased hostages Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas nearby in Tel Aviv, Israel on 20 February 2025. Credit: Nir Elias/Reuters)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to NewsHour. It's coming to you live from the BBC World Service
0:07.1	Studios in central London. I'm Tim Franks. For two hours today, behind rain-spattered windscreens,
0:14.6	a convoy of white police vehicles wound steadily northwards through Israel. Their journey had
0:20.2	begun at the crossing point from the south of the Gaza Strip.
0:23.0	That was where Hamas had handed over to the Red Cross,
0:25.9	who then handed on to the Israelis, four coffins.
0:29.3	It's believed that the bodies are of four hostages
0:31.5	who were abducted from the cabots in southern Israel where they'd lived
0:34.7	until the 7th of October, 2023.
0:38.3	The four are thought to be, 32year-old Shiribibahs, her two children, four-year-old
0:43.7	Ariel and nine-month-old Kfir, along with the 84-year-old peace activist Odded Lifshitz.
0:49.9	In fact, just as we were coming on air, it was reported that the Lifshitz family of now
0:54.0	had confirmation that his remains are in one of the coffins.
0:58.4	The return of the bodies is the next phase of the current ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
1:04.4	Let's speak first to the BBC's Mark Lohen, who joins us from Jerusalem.
1:10.2	Mark, a different type of hostage exchange today.
1:15.0	Give me your assessment of how it's all being received in Israel.
1:19.4	A different type, Tim, but still the same stage-managed affair by Hamas.
1:27.2	Just yesterday, the Red Cross was calling on Hamas and Islamic
1:31.6	Jihad, the other group holding hostages in Gaza, not to let this handover of coffins be done in a
1:39.6	public stage-managed way, but to try to preserve some dignity for the dead. But that was not the case.
1:47.5	It was done, there was still, there was a stage that was erected in Hanyunis in southern Gaza where the
	...

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