Israeli television
tonight broadcast a video featuring the youngest Hamas hostages -
the Bibas children - who were found by the army in an underground hideout in the south of the Strip.
In the video you can see the mother Shiri wrapped in a blanket from which the head of little Ariel - who was 4 years old at the time of the kidnapping - emerges and two or three Hamas militants around her.
"There is fear for their fate, we are very worried", said military spokesman Daniel Hagari speaking of the video, explaining that "it was found in the Khan Yunis area and the kidnapped people were handed over to the Kataeb Mujaedin group. But the responsibility - he added - it is from Hamas".
The images were broadcast on television after the family of the kidnapped people gave their consent.
"From that video - the family members told Channel 12 TV - there is confirmation that they arrived in Gaza alive and that Hamas is solely responsible for the safety of the mother Shiri and the children Kfir (then 9 months old, ed.) and Ariel (4 years old, ed.)".
There has been no news of them since.
A video that "rips your heart".
This is how the Bibas family - through the Hostages' Families Forum - defined the video of their relatives found in Khan Yunis and released by the army.
"Witnessing Shiri, Yarden, Ariel and Kfir, torn from their home in Nir Oz in this hellish landscape - he denounced - is unbearable and inhumane. The kidnapping of children is a crime against humanity and a war crime".
“We desperately ask the decision-makers in Israel and around the world who are involved in the negotiations: bring them home immediately.”
Video Israel releases video of the kidnapping of the Bibas children and their mother
Israel: 'We will return to Cairo when the conditions are ripe'
The Israeli delegation will go to Cairo for hostage negotiations "when conditions are ripe".
War Cabinet Minister
Benny Gantz said this in a meeting with the families of the abductees who had gathered outside his home.
"We need to go there to make them come back, not to go there - he explained - just to go there".
On the other hand, speaking at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "Qatar can put pressure on Hamas like no other."
“They host the leaders of Hamas: Hamas is financially dependent on them,” Netanyahu explained, adding that the release of Israeli prisoners from the Gaza Strip can only be achieved through “strong military action and very tough negotiations.”
"I urge you to put pressure on Qatar to put pressure on Hamas, because we want our hostages to be released," the Israeli prime minister said.
But the spokesperson of the Qatari Foreign Ministry stated that these statements by Netanyahu "are a new attempt to prolong the war for reasons that are now known to everyone". "Qatar - he continued - has been engaged in mediation since day one to end the crisis and free the abductees."
A high-level US delegation arrived in the Egyptian capital this morning to participate in ongoing ceasefire talks in the Gaza Strip and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
This was reported by airport sources.
The delegation is made up of members of the American National Security Council, and arrived on a plane from Washington.
Berlin, 'Immediate truce, but for Hamas to lay down its weapons in Rafah'
"I have just returned from the Middle East and Israel and for us it is of the utmost importance to achieve peace, we need a humanitarian truce and the release
of the hostages".
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said this in Brussels.
"The people who are in Rafah and went there at the request of the Israeli army cannot disappear into the sky, they must be able to return to the north and for this
we need a truce," he added.
"But we see that in some areas of Rafah Hamas is strongly active and Hamas must lay down its weapons: for us, Israel has the right to defend itself."
Media, Gaza residents receive messages offering money for abductees
Gaza residents in recent days have received text messages from Israel asking, in exchange for money, for information on hostages held
captive by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.
"Are you interested in a better future for your family and - it is claimed in the message, which was also spread by Palestinian social media and taken up by the Israeli media - in a nice reward? Do you have information on the hostages or on those who have them in captivity? Don't hesitate to contact us at these numbers".
Attached to the text message - but it is not yet clear which sector of the Israeli defense sent them - are contact channels and also photos of the kidnapped people.
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