Two hostages freed in Gaza crossed into Israel: military

By AFP - Feb 22,2025 - Last updated at Feb 22,2025

Palestinians and Hamas fighters gather at the site of the handing over of two Israeli hostages in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, as part of the seventh hostage-prisoner release on February 22, 2025.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - The two Israeli hostages, Tal Shoham and Averu Mengistu, who were freed in a ceremony in the southern Gaza city of Rafah Saturday crossed into Israeli territory, the military said in a statement.

Israel's Bibas family announced Saturday that remains returned to Israel the day before were identified to be of hostage Shiri Bibas, taken captive by Palestinian fighters in October 2023.

The Israeli kibbutz community of Nir Oz had earlier Saturday announced Bibas's death, after the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had transferred more human remains to Israeli authorities without saying whose they were.

On Thursday, Hamas handed over four bodies, saying they were of Shiri Bibas, her two young son, and an elderly hostage.

While the remains of her two sons and the elderly hostage were identified positively, Israeli authorities said the fourth body was not that of Shiri Bibas, sparking anger and grief across the country.

But on Friday, Hamas -- which blamed a possible "mix-up" of bodies -- handed over new remains to the Red Cross, which now have been identified to be that of Shiri Bibas.

Hamas has long maintained an Israeli air strike killed Bibas and her boys -- Kfir and Ariel -- early in the war.

The Bibas family became symbols of the hostage ordeal suffered by Israel since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.