IDF publishes footage of Nasrallah assassination, as funeral progesses

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi is traveling to Beirut for the funeral of Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and his deputy, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, who were both killed by Israel last year.

Nasrallah was killed on September 27, 2024, when Israel escalated attacks in response to a year of Hezbollah rockets on Israel. Safieddine, who was named Hezbollah’s new secretary-general following Nasrallah's assassination, was killed the next month.

Araqchi will arrive at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport on Sunday morning, Iran’s state media IRNA said. He will participate in the funeral procession, which the report says will take place at 1 p.m. local time. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf will also be among the attendees of the funeral ceremonies, the report added. The last time Ghalibaf was in the Lebanese capital, he piloted an Iranian aircraft that landed in the city with a delegation in October 2024.

Lebanon's Hezbollah will bury its former leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in a mass funeral aimed at showing political strength after the group emerged badly weakened from last year's war.

Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in an Israeli airstrike as he met commanders in a bunker in Beirut's southern suburbs, a stunning blow in the early phase of an Israeli offensive that has left the Iran-backed group a shadow of its former self.

Revered by Hezbollah supporters, Nasrallah led the Shi'ite Muslim terror group through decades of conflict with Israel, overseeing its transformation into a military force with regional sway and becoming one of the most prominent Arab figures in generations.

The forensics team that identified Shiri Bibas's body confirmed that she did not die in an Israeli airstrike as Hamas had previously claimed. 

"We were met with depths of evil and malice that could not be conceived," Dr. Chen Kugel, a leading forensic scientist from the National Center for Forensic Medicine, said on Saturday. "Our examination showed no evidence of injury from the bomb."

"This is a difficult day for us and for all citizens of Israel," he concluded. 

Shiri Bibas's body was returned to Israel from Gaza on Friday night. Hamas transferred her remains to the Red Cross, which transferred them to the IDF. The military brought then brought her body to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for confirmatory testing.

Hamas forced Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal to watch as six other hostages were released from captivity on Saturday.

Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham Al-Sayed were freed from the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

Hamas asks hostages 'how they feel' as brothers in captivity freed

In a video posted to its Telegram channel, the terrorist organization made the two hostages watch as the others were released. 

The video shows the two in the back of a car very close to the stage where the release ceremony for Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen. 

Released hostage Omer Shem Tov was forced to disguise himself as a Muslim woman and lowered into an underground tunnel in a bucket. He was spit on, cursed, and compelled to kiss his Hamas captors in a staged ceremony.

Other hostages were shackled for months, starved, and left in complete darkness, their bodies wasting away.

According to testimonies published by Israeli media, the six freed hostages endured months of isolation, abuse, and deprivation in Hamas’s underground tunnel network.

Eliya Cohen, one of the released hostages, recounted being shackled for extended periods, suffering deep cuts from the restraints. He and his fellow captives were primarily held in sealed tunnels with limited access to light. Hamas operatives would occasionally shine flashlights into their eyes, a form of psychological manipulation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed Hamas's murder of slain Israeli hostages Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir of the Bibas family, calling the terror group's actions an illustration of "savagery" in a Sunday X/Twitter post.

This comes after Israel's forensics team identified Shiri Bibas's body and confirmed that she did not die in an Israeli airstrike as Hamas had previously claimed. Shiri's children, Ariel and Kfir, were also identified, and it was confirmed they were murdered after their bodies were returned to Israel on Thursday as part of the ceasefire-hostage deal.

"Hamas’ treatment of hostages, including its brutal murder of the Bibas family, further illustrates their savagery," Rubio wrote in his post.

He added that this was "yet another reason why we are saying these terrorists must release all of the hostages immediately or be destroyed."

Hamas’ treatment of hostages, including its brutal murder of the Bibas family, further illustrates their savagery and is yet another reason why we are saying these terrorists must release all of the hostages immediately or be destroyed.

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) February 22, 2025

US President Donald Trump said that he had seen the six hostages return from Hamas captivity to Israel on Saturday during his statement at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

During his address, Trump also criticized former US president Joe Biden and his conduct in working to bring back the Israeli hostages that were kidnapped to Hamas captivity during the October 7 attacks in 2023.

"I saw this morning that we got six more [hostages] back," Trump said. 

He then said, "Biden got none back [hostages], by the way, just so you understand. None. Zero," 

Weeks and months of starvation, existential fear, and unimaginable psychological stress have left their mark on the hostages' bodies. In addition to drastic weight loss and other physical and mental health effects, many of them were seen with hair that had prematurely whitened, developed gray streaks, or partial baldness. Can extreme stress really cause such dramatic changes in hair? Researchers explain how prolonged stress and malnutrition affect hair’s life cycle and accelerate scalp aging.

Extreme psychological stress is one of the most significant factors in premature hair whitening. A study published in the journal Nature showed that chronic stress damages the stem cells of hair follicles. Under normal circumstances, the hair receives its color from pigment-producing cells called melanocytes, but when the body experiences prolonged stress, the sympathetic nervous system releases large amounts of norepinephrine—a stress hormone that harms the hair’s stem cells. When these cells are damaged or die, there is nothing left to produce pigment, and the hair becomes permanently white.

Six hostages were released from Hamas captivity Saturday, as Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen returned to Israel after 505 days, and Avera Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed returned after being held by Hamas since 2014 and 2015, respectively.   

Mengistu and Shoham were released in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, while Shem Tov, Wenkert, and Cohen were released from the Nuseirat refugee camp shortly after. Al-Sayed was then released from captivity in Gaza City. 

This marks the first time in the deal that hostages were released in Nuseirat and in Rafah. Saturday's transfer was the seventh wave of releases in the hostage deal.