A day Israelis have been dreading arrivespublished at 07:37 Greenwich Mean Time
Paul Adams
World affairs correspondent
This is the moment all Israelis have been dreading: the return of the dead, from the very youngest to the very oldest.
For many, the focus will be on the Bibas family – Shiri and her two young red-headed boys, Ariel and Kfir. The image of a terrified Shiri, cradling her boys in her arms during her abduction on 7 October 2023, was one of the most searing to emerge from that day.
Hamas has long claimed that all three were killed during an Israeli airstrike early in the war. Israelis have clung to the hope that somehow all three survived.
Also being returned today, according to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, is the body of Oded Lifschitz, a veteran journalist and peace activist in his mid-eighties.
His wife, Yocheved, was released in late October 2023, saying she had “been through hell” and had confronted the Hamas military chief, Yahya Sinwar, and told him he should be “ashamed of himself.”
The pictures of Oded Lifschitz and the Bibas family stare out from the front pages of this morning’s papers. Israel will only confirm their return once forensic tests have been completed, adding to the agony of the day.
Supporters of the hostages and their families have invited members of the public to line the route of an army convoy from the edge of the Gaza Strip to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Jaffa.
On Saturday, Israelis are expecting to celebrate the return of six more living hostages. But today, a heavy blanket of grief has descended over the country.