What is going on in Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza?

I cried silently and profoundly. No one saw me cry. Outwardly, my day was ordinary—a beautiful afternoon with my grandchild, laughing in the park, watching them practice jiu-jitsu. But inside, my heart fractured.

Official identification has linked the remains of two of the four bodies returned to Israel today from captivity as belonging to Kfir and Ariel Bibas, the IDF confirmed early Friday morning, alongside a report on forensic findings of the case.

World leaders and Jewish organizations expressed shock and anger following the news Shiri Bibas's body was not released back to Israel along with those of her young sons Ariel and Kfir.

Israel will continue with Saturday's upcoming hostage release as planned, the IDF told Israeli media.

This comes after the IDF announced the results of the forensic investigation which found that one of the hostages remains on Thursday morning was not Shiri Bibas.

Israel will continue with Saturday's upcoming hostage exchange as planned, the IDF told Israeli media on Friday following the announcement Hamas had failed to release the remains of Shiri Bibas.

A Ukrainian Jewish man, who recently underwent a circumcision, took the Jewish name Kfir Ariel in honor of the two Bibas brothers murdered in Hamas captivity, Chabad shared on Thursday. 

The IDF confirmed on Friday morning that the hostage remains released on Thursday belonged to Ariel and Kfir Bibas. However, the third body "was not that of Shiri Bibas, and no match was found for any other abductee. It is an anonymous body without identification," the military stated.

"This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home along with all our hostages," the military added.

The bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons were meant to be returned on Thursday morning according to an understanding between Hamas terrorists and Israeli authorities.

Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer arrived in the US and met with President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, a source familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday evening. 

According to the souce, Witkoff has also spoken with the Prime Minister of Qatar, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani. 

Dermer was appointed to lead the Israeli delegation's negotiations over the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal this week. 

Multiple busses exploded in various locations of Bat Yam parking lots on Thursday evening in what is suspected to be a terror attack, the Israel Police announced.

The police said that no one had been injured in the incidents.

Police also stated that large groups of forces were at the scene in search of the suspects.

Bomb disposal units have begun scanning the area for additional suspicious objects, the police added.

"We urge the public to avoid the areas and remain alert for any suspicious items," the police warned the public in a statement.

Hamas’s return of three members of the Bibas family, including Kfir and Ariel Bibas, a baby and a four-year-old, in coffins on Thursday unmasked the unambiguous terror and brutality at the center of the terror group’s ideology.

For a short period of time, the overwhelming majority of critics of Israel went silent, and many media outlets who spend most of their airtime slamming Israel even recalled that October 7, 2023 was in fact a mass terror attack.

For those who tried during the course of this war to portray Hamas as a misunderstood resistance group of freedom fighters who only want relief from the nasty Israeli occupation, the Bibas children in coffins blew a gaping hole through their narrative.

For a few moments it does not really matter what Hamas’s narrative is.