War Day 509: Bibas Family Brought to Burial, Hundreds of Murderers Released

War Summary, Day 509: Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir brought to burial, four hostages bodies returned, Hamas interested in extending phase one, hundreds of murderous terrorists released including bomb engineers, murderers released to Jerusalem, another failed rocket launch from Gaza, and targeted elimination in Lebanon.

By Mrs. Bruria Efune

59 held captive in Gaza.
35 hostages confirmed murdered held in Gaza.
147 living hostages rescued.
49 hostage bodies rescued.
1,828 Israelis killed.
413 fallen soldiers and police in the battle in Gaza.
87 fallen soldiers in Northern Israel.
18 fallen soldiers and police in Judea & Samaria.
30,683 estimated projectiles fired at Israel.
70,000 Israelis displaced from their homes.
1 Jewish nation united in prayer, charity, and good deeds.

Updates may be off schedule and shorter than usual while I’m traveling this week. Please forgive typos and missed autocorrects as I write from my phone.

Top Headlines:

• Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir brought to burial
• Four hostages bodies returned
• Hamas interested in extending phase one
• Hundreds of murderous terrorists released, including bomb engineers
• Murderers released to Jerusalem
• Another failed rocket launch from Gaza
• Targeted elimination in Lebanon

Hostages:

Wednesday morning was the funeral for Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas. The funeral was for close family and friends only, but was broadcast for people to watch. The route to the funeral was published, and hundreds of thousands of Israelis lined it to pay last respects to the kedoshim (bodies of the three).

Shiri and her children were buried together in one coffin, just as they were taken huddled together to Gaza.

Yarden Bibas eulogized his wife and children. He spoke about what happened the morning of October 7th, and his wife’s bravery:

“Do you remember the last decision we made together? In the shelter, I asked you: “Do we fight or surrender?” You said, “We fight.” So I fought.”

He pleaded:

“Shiri, please watch over me. Keep me from making bad decisions. Keep me safe from harm. Protect me from myself. Don’t let me sink into the darkness.”

The bodies of four hostages were returned to Israel today—this time with no ceremony from Hamas. Following Israeli pressure, Hamas handed the Nides to the Red Cross without any audience. The Red Cross then delivered the bodies to the IDF, who brought them in to Israel. The soldiers held an initial short ceremony, and initial ID check. Then, late at night, the bodies were brought to the Abu Kabir Institute in Israel for identification, and to find how they were killed.

The Abu Kabir institute confirmed the identity of three hostages:

1. Itzik Elgarat, 70, from Kibbutz Nir Oz
2. Shlomo Mansour, 86, from Kibbutz Kissufim
3. Tzahi Idan, 50, from Kibbutz Nachal Oz
4. Ohad Yahalomi, 50, from Kibbutz Nir Oz

With these four, the first phase of the hostage deal is completed. It is now to be seen whether: a. The first phase is extended and more hostages are returned in exchange for terrorists and humanitarian aid, b. A second phase is agreed on, or c. Israel returns to war.

According to the original agreement, Israel must begin withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor on Shabbat, and complete withdrawal by March 8th. The Philadelphi Corridor stretches along the Gazan side of the Gaza-Egypt border, and was full of Hamas smuggling tunnels.

Amit Segal, Israel’s leading political commentator, reported that Israel will definitely not withdraw.

Hamas’s spokesman announced that they are interested in extending the first phase of the deal.

Terrorists Freed:

642 terrorists were freed from prison today, in exchange for the last 14 hostages who were returned (6 alive, 8 not).

If the terrorists being released, 151 were serving life sentences for direct involvement in deadly terror attacks. Of them, 97 will be deported abroad.

Over 400 of the terrorists were released into Gaza. Most of these were arrested after October 7th.

At least 37 were released into Judea and Samaria.

At least five of the terrorists were released to their homes in East Jerusalem, from where they have easy access to all of Israel. Included amongst them is Hamza al-Kaluti, a Hamas terrorist who was serving a life sentence for planning suicide bombings in the 1990s.

In total, 1,700 terrorists were released as part of Phase One of the deal.

A sampling of the terrorists released on Wednesday (as written in Hebrew by Doron Kadosh) includes:

• Amar Alazban, one of the leaders of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, responsible for a long series of attacks in which 27 Israelis were murdered, and sentenced to 27 life sentences in prison.
• Bilal Abu Ghanem, the terrorist who carried out the attack on bus line 78 in Armon Hanatziv in Jerusalem in which 3 Israelis were murdered in 2015.
• Abd al-Nasser Issa – one of the senior aides to “The Engineer” Yahya Ayyash, a senior figure in Hamas’s military wing in the West Bank who was sentenced to life imprisonment for attacks against Israelis.
• Majdi Zatari, members of the cell responsible for a series of attacks on bus lines 2 and 14 in Jerusalem in 2003, in one of which 23 Israelis were murdered, including 7 children, and who sent the suicide bombing on line 6 in the French Hill in which 7 Israelis were murdered and 20 injured. They planned many additional attacks.
• Nael Barghouti, the longest-serving Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jail. A terrorist who murdered Mordechai Yakoel in 1978, released in the Shalit deal and arrested again.
• Ibrahim Abd al-Hai, commander of the cell that sent the suicide bomber to the attack at Em Hamoshavot mall in Petah Tikva in 2002, in which a grandmother and her one-year-old granddaughter (Ruth Peled and Sinai Keinan) were murdered, and about 50 other people were injured. Sentenced to 11 life sentences.
• Iyad Mahalwes, a life prisoner from East Jerusalem who tried a few years ago to smuggle mobile phones into Shikma Prison in his underwear.
• Ahmad Aref Al-Asafra – member of the cell that murdered Dvir Sorek in 2019 near Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion.
• Ahmad Obeid, a terrorist serving seven life sentences for aiding the terrorist who murdered 7 Israelis in the attack at Café Hillel in Jerusalem in 2003.
• Ashraf Al-Wawi, who murdered two soldiers in an attack in Deir Ballut in 1993, released in the Shalit deal and re-arrested.
• Akram Hamad – head of the Fatah cell responsible during the Second Intifada for a series of shooting attacks in the Benjamin area, including the murders of Assaf Hershkovitz and Idit Mizrahi in 2001.
• Anwar and Maazuz Basharat, members of the cell that murdered Masoud Alon, a 72-year-old Israeli who was missing from his home for a day and whose body was found next to his burned car in the Jordan Valley in 2003.
• Bashir Kharub – the terrorist who murdered reserve Colonel Sariya Yaya Ofer in his home in the settlement of Brosh Habika’a in 2013.
• Bilal Abu Ghanem – the terrorist who carried out the attack on bus line 78 in Armon Hanatziv in Jerusalem in which 3 Israelis were murdered in 2015.
• Tamer Rimawi, a senior Tanzim figure who was responsible for the attack in Halamish in 2003.
• Hussam Halabi, from the Fatah terrorist cell that murdered the couple Avi and Avital Wolanski in Samaria in 2002.
• Hamza Abu Arqoub, one of the members of the cell that murdered brothers Shlomo and Mordechai Nachman from Tapuach in a shooting attack in 2002.
• Khaled Hadish – one of the prominent commanders and founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades of Fatah, detained since the Second Intifada for life sentences.
• Khalil Yusuf Jabarin, the terrorist who murdered Ari Fuld in an attack at the Gush Etzion junction in 2018.
• Rajab Aliwa, commander of the cell that murdered the couple Eitam and Na’ama Henkin in 2015.
• Muhammad and Raad Kharub, members of the cell that murdered police officer Shuki Sofer in an attack in the Hebron area in 2010.
• Samer Mahroum, the terrorist who murdered Eliyahu Amedi in Jerusalem in 1986, released in the Shalit deal and re-arrested.
• Suheil Koka, who assisted the cell that murdered two IDF soldiers in Migdalim in 2005.
• Muhammad Abu Sanina, the terrorist who murdered two Border Police officers, Rami Zoari and David Shriki, in 2008.
• Nahar Sa’adi, who assisted the female suicide bomber at the Amakim Mall in Afula where 3 citizens were murdered and about 70 injured in 2003.
• Hani Khamaisa, a terrorist who was an officer in the Palestinian Authority, who murdered Stanislav Sandomirsky in 2001 near Ramallah, and hid his body in the trunk of his car.
• Haitham Battat, member of a Hamas cell that carried out two attacks in which 4 Israelis were murdered: the attack near the Southern Command in Be’er Sheva in which two female soldiers were murdered, and a shooting attack near Chevron in which two Israelis were murdered.
• Wael Al-Arjah, one of the terrorists who murdered Asher Palmer and his one-year-old son Jonathan in a stone-throwing attack in 2011 in Kiryat Arba.
• Yousef Kamil, the terrorist who murdered Reuven Schmerling in Kafr Qasim in 2017.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Gaza:

Early Wednesdays morning, a rocket was launched from writhing Gaza, and fell short into Gaza. The IDF followed with airstrikes attacking the rocket launcher and several other launch sites. This is the third failed launch since the start of the ceasefire. Hamas is pushing the limits, and Israel is showing extreme flexibility and desperation to continue the ceasefire and get more hostages out.

Judea & Samaria:

Overnight (Tuesday to Wednesday), IDF troops continued counterterrorism operations and arrested 19 wanted terrorists, and confiscated seven guns.

Lebanon:

A targeted airstrike eliminated Mehran Ali Nasser al-Din, a key terrorist in Hezbollah’s Reinforcement and Weapons Transfer Unit, aka, Unit 4400.

The unit is responsible for smuggling weapons into Lebanon from Iran and its proxies, and works to increase the organization’s stockpile of weapons as much as possible. Since its establishment, the unit has built numerous smuggling routes on the Syria-Lebanon border.

Unit 4400 has been the target of extensive IDF airstrikes throughout the war, as Israel worked to stop the flow of weapons into Lebanon.

Nasser al-Din, who was eliminated today, played a key role in Hezbollah’s weapons transfers, and directly cooperated with weapons smugglers operating on the Syria-Lebanon border.

Sponsored by Debbi Gorman, in honor of Agam Berger. Agam is an inspiration to me and this is to honor her hope in doing one good deed a day for our Jewish nation. I am holding all the hostage families, our heroic soldiers and families close in my heart. Am Yisrael Chai.