(21 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tel Aviv, Israel – 21 February 2025
1. Mid of wall of posters showing pictures of hostages
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Orion Calderon, resident of central Israel:
“Well, we heard the news of the body not being what and who, the identity should have been and honestly, we are not surprised. I wish, hopefully, it would have been her, of course. I wish I could say that we would not be surprised but we know where we are living, in which neighbourhood we are living in. Unfortunately, it’s not, by far, another surprise.”
3. Tel Aviv resident, Marc Schulman, walking with dog
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Marc Schulman, Tel Aviv resident:
“I was surprised to wake up to this this morning, that was the first piece of news I saw on my iPhone this morning, the fact that the body was the wrong body. I don’t know (how) they could have made a mistake, it seems to be deliberate, or they don’t have the body. Or even in my own mind, I’m thinking if she’s still alive somewhere, and they tried to claim she was killed. Did she see them kill her children and therefore they can’t release her? All those sort of thoughts are in my mind right now. The fact that it was, that it was decided that the babies have been killed, that they had forensic evidence that the babies have been killed, plus intelligence evidence of that, that was horrifying.”
5. Schulman walking away
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Shani Balter, resident of central Israel:
“(US) President (Donald) Trump, I think you should make everyone in America know the truth about what happened in here on October 7th and the suffer(ing) that we’ve been through for the past more than 500 days. And people should know that we are not the type of persons who are looking for wars. We want to live in peace. We want to live peacefully. We want our kids to grow old and to grow safely. And we need you to make sure that all of the people that are still in Gaza come home.”
7. Poster of hostages on wall
STORYLINE:
People in Tel Aviv reacted with sadness on Friday following the announcement by Israeli officials that one of the bodies released by Hamas on Thursday was not the mother of two young children.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said a body that Hamas militants released during the handover of remains of Israeli hostages on Thursday was that of a Gazan woman instead of Shiri Bibas, the mother of two young boys whose bodies were returned in the handover.
In a statement released Friday, Netanyahu criticized the handover of the wrong remains as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement, which has halted fighting in the Gaza Strip, and said Hamas would “pay the full price” for the action.
"We heard the news of the body not being what and who, the identity should have been and honestly, we are not surprised,” said Orion Calderon, a resident of central Israel as he reacted to the announcement.
Hamas militants turned over four bodies on Thursday under the tenuous ceasefire, which has paused over 15 months of war.
Israel confirmed one body was that of Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted during the Hamas attack.
The remains of Ariel and Kfir Bibas were identified by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in collaboration with the Israel Police and the families were notified, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement.
But the additional body was not that of their mother Shiri Bibas, nor any other hostage, the IDF said.
The first phase of the ceasefire ends in early March, however Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase.
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