Hamas Names 6 Hostages it Will Release on Saturday

FILE PHOTO: People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo
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Hamas Names 6 Hostages it Will Release on Saturday

FILE PHOTO: People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: People walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings, in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas/File Photo

The armed wing of militant group Hamas said on Friday it will release Israeli hostages Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengisto on Saturday.
Hisham al-Sayed and Avera Mengisto are civilians, who entered Gaza a decade ago and have been held there since.

Hamas also said on Friday it would look into the possibility of an error or that human remains were mixed due to Israeli airstrikes, after the Israeli military said one of the bodies released by Hamas on Thursday did not belong to any of the hostages held in Gaza.
The group's official statement echoed that of one earlier from the group's Gaza government media office director Ismail Al-Thawabta.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would make Hamas pay for failing to release the body of hostage Shiri Bibas as agreed, in the latest potential threat to the month-old Gaza ceasefire.
Israeli specialists said one of four bodies handed over by Hamas on Thursday was an unidentified woman and not Bibas.
Netanyahu accused Hamas of acting "in an unspeakably cynical manner" by placing the body of a Gaza woman in the coffin instead of Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her two sons, Kfir and Ariel, and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The bodies of Kfir and Ariel were among those handed over and identified.
"We will act with determination to bring Shiri home along with all our hostages - both living and dead - and ensure Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and evil violation of the agreement," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Al-Thawabta said Shiri Bibas' remains appear to have been mixed with other human remains after being buried in the rubble of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike.
"Netanyahu himself issued the orders for the direct and merciless bombing, and he bears full responsibility for killing her and her children," he said in a statement.



US Demand to Dismantle PMF Fuels Debate in Iraq, Iran

3 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq, speaks during a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
3 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq, speaks during a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
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US Demand to Dismantle PMF Fuels Debate in Iraq, Iran

3 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq, speaks during a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)
3 January 2023, Berlin: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Prime Minister of Iraq, speaks during a press conference at the Federal Chancellery. (dpa)

The United States’ demand for the dismantling of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq has fueled debate in Baghdad and Tehran.

Iranian Ambassador to Iraq Mohammad Kazem Al-Sadegh said US President Donald Trump’s recent message to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei included a demand to dismantle the Tehran-backed PMF and other armed factions.

In televised remarks on Thursday, Al-Sadegh said the dismantling or merger of the PMF in the armed forces is “unacceptable for Iran and Iraq.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani later responded to his remarks, saying the US made no such demand.

In a television interview, he stressed that the dismantling of the armed factions is linked to ending the deployment of the US-led international coalition to fight ISIS in Iraq.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein declared that his country is not part of the “Resistance Axis” of armed groups across the region that are loyal to Iran.

He warned that Israel may attack Iran should Tehran fail to reach an understanding with the US.

“Iraq does not agree with the ‘unity of arenas’,” he added in a television interview.