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

The bodies of the slain hostages abducted during the October 7 Massacre were weaponized by Hamas on Thursday morning, with the alleged remains of Oded Lifshitz and Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas in a ceremony paraded before crowds of masked militiamen and celebrating civilians. The Gazan terrorist coalition was likely attempting to use the hostage remains as a three-pronged psychological trident to stab at Israelis and Palestinians, and while Hamas and its supporters may believe that they have designed the propaganda spectacle to defuse any blowback, like the 2023 pogrom in which they seized the captives it will blow up in their faces.

In its Islamist fanaticism and pathological hatred of Israel, anything in Hamas's power invariably becomes a weapon. Yet hatred is a flame that burns all, regardless of who kindles it, and the weapons Hamas forges in its fires unfailingly backfire.

Hamas's Gaza arsenal has long relied on rockets and mortar bombs to strike at Israelis, which are prone to falling within the Gaza Strip. The IDF said in October 2023 that one in five rockets launched from Gaza misfired and fell in the same territory. Just last Thursday, a 14-year-old Palestinian was killed when a Gazan rocket misfired.

It's hard to know just how many Palestinians Hamas and the like have killed in gun battles and RPGs, as they are not known for being the most discriminate in their fire. Gaza itself was turned into a gun pointed at Israel, with underground tunnels, rocket launch sites, and military infrastructure integrated into the very soil. Gaza suffered when this infrastructure was upturned.

Marking 500 days since the October 7 massacre, the Washington Hebrew Congregation was filled with a national prayer for the return of the hostages due to efforts from the Jewish Federations of North America on Tuesday. 

Hamas captivity survivors and their family members addressed a crowd of hundreds of people who showed up in support.

Among the survivors who presented were Noa Argamani and Ilana Gritzewsky, both of whom have partners who remain in Gaza captivity, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker. In addition, Gal Dalal, brother of hostage Guy Gilboa Dalal, also spoke, in addition to Moshe Lavi, brother-in-law of hostage Omri Miran. 

It was December 2023, and Israel was facing the most important legal warfare (lawfare) battle of its existence: whether the International Court of Justice would order the war ended before the IDF had defeated Hamas in Khan Yunis, let alone moved on to Rafah.

That the dozens of Israeli diplomats, legal officials, and political officials involved in preparing for fighting the genocide allegations against Israel before the ICJ did not have a simple job would be the understatement of the year.

Although all Israelis had a traumatic three months at the opening of the war, the Jerusalem Post understands that these officials, with one of the leaders being Deputy Attorney General for International Affairs Dr. Gilad Noam, went through a special level of difficulty given the responsibility to protect the country from genocide recriminations.

Probably the most important “win” of Noam’s career to date was convincing the ICJ in December 2023-January 2024 to stay out of the Gaza war in any imminent sense.

On May 5, 2024, former deputy attorney-general for international affairs Roy Schondorf wrote a public warning to the government and the public that a state inquiry must be opened to protect Israelis from potential International Criminal Court action.

This state inquiry would not have needed to get into politically risky subjects like the October 7 disaster, but rather could have been narrowly limited to international law and war issues.

Had the cabinet acted on Schondorf’s recommendation, theoretically it might have blocked ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan from requesting arrests against Netanyahu and Gallant just two weeks later on May 20, 2024.

Under the ICC’s own Rome Statute, it cannot probe a country or defendants from a country if that country is still probing the same defendants. Currently, the IDF has opened close to 90 criminal probes and over 1,000 operational reviews relating to the Gaza war, but none of these look at the conduct of Netanyahu and the war cabinet.

Israel’s main priority remains preventing the reemergence of an armed Palestinian force in Gaza, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar emphasized in an interview with Jewish Insider’s Lahav Harkov. Addressing former US President Donald Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s Palestinian population, Sa’ar did not explicitly endorse the plan but acknowledged its potential feasibility.

“If someone wants to emigrate and another country is willing to accept them, that is a legitimate, moral solution,” he said. However, he stressed that Israel’s main priority remains preventing the reemergence of an armed Palestinian force in Gaza.

He added that Israel will not accept a ceasefire deal that allows Hamas to maintain control of Gaza or dictates the country’s security terms.

Sa’ar emphasized that while negotiations for hostage releases remain a priority, Israel cannot compromise on its strategic objectives. He outlined three potential paths: securing a deal within 10 days, resuming military operations, or extending the current phase of negotiations to allow for further exchanges.

Israel's Institute of Forensic Medicine made a public statement on Thursday, confirming that slain hostage Oded Lifshitz's body had been identified and that he was killed over a year ago. 

The institute did not address the identities of the other three slain hostages.  

"The National Center for Forensic Medicine is working to identify all the murdered and has been mobilized to identify all the hostages who are returning to graves in Israel," the Head of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Dr. Chen Kugel, said.

"We have been working since this morning to give the families a definitive answer. The institute's employees continue the work of identification," he added.

"This is a difficult moment for the family, for us, for the entire State of Israel. We send our condolences to the family. Of course, we all hope for the return of all the kidnapped," Dr. Kugel concluded. 

The family of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz said they received news confirming the identity of his body after it was returned to Israel from Hamas captivity, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters announced on Thursday afternoon. 

Lifshitz's body was returned from captivity on Thursday morning, along with three other slain Israeli hostages. His body is the first of the four to be confirmed as identified. 

His family expressed their sorrow regarding the news of the identification, saying that they "received with deep sorrow the official and bitter news confirming the identification of our beloved Oded's body."

The Bibas family - Shiri, Yarden, and their infant children Ariel and Kfir entered the hearts of people around the world. The horrifying scenes of the kidnapping of tiny children wrapped in their mother's arms were seen around the world.

Today, as their bodies are returned to Israel, we look back in photos and video at the various ways the world has been impacted by the plight of the Bibas family and how they marked their captivity and called for their release.

In December of 2023, the Israeli government launched a campaign that saw the faces of Kfir, along with other hostages, displayed on huge screens in Times Square.

The United Nations rights chief said on Thursday the parading of bodies in Gaza is abhorrent and flies in the face of international law.

Hamas handed over the bodies of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his four-year-old brother Airel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in their October 7, 2023 attack. The bodies of their mother Shiri Bibas and a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, were handed over under the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached last month.

"Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families", Volker Turk said in a statement.