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JERUSALEM/CAIRO – Hamas released a body on Friday it claimed to be that of Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas, whose misidentification in a handover this week threatened to derail the fragile Gaza ceasefire deal. Israeli medical authorities said forensic teams were preparing to examine the body, which Hamas transferred via the Red Cross, and confirm its identity. The Palestinian militant group had agreed to hand over the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel along with the remains of a fourth hostage on Thursday under the ceasefire that has halted fighting in Gaza since last month. Four bodies were delivered and the identities of the Bibas boys and the other hostage, Oded Lifshitz, were confirmed. But Israeli specialists said the fourth body was that of an unidentified woman and not Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped along with her sons and her husband, Yarden, during the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said “unfortunate mistakes” could occur, especially as Israeli bombing had mixed the bodies of Israeli hostages and Palestinians, thousands of whom were still buried in the rubble. “We confirm that it is not in our values or our interest to keep any bodies or not to abide by the covenants and agreements that we sign,” he said in a statement. The failure to hand over the correct body and the staged public handover of the four coffins on Thursday caused outrage in Israel and drew a threat of retaliation from Netanyahu. “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,” he said in a video statement. Hamas said in November 2023 that the children and their mother had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Netanyahu “bears full responsibility for killing her and her children.” But the Israeli military said intelligence assessments and forensic analysis of the bodies of the Bibas children indicated that they were deliberately killed by their captors. Chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said the boys were killed by the militants “with their bare hands,” but gave no details. The U.N. Human Rights Office said it had no information of its own on the hostage deaths and called for an effective investigation into the causes. “The return of the remains of the deceased is a basic humanitarian goal,” the office said. The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire agreement reached with U.S. backing and with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month. Six living hostages were due for release on Saturday in exchange for 602 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, according to Hamas, and the start of negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire was expected in the coming days. “Hamas must return the hostages as agreed in the ceasefire — the living and the deceased,” Israeli military spokesperson Nadav Shoshani said in a statement on social media platform X. “They have to bring Shiri back, and they have to release the 6 living hostages expected tomorrow.” Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had been officially informed of the names of the six hostages to be released, which Hamas sources said was expected at around 8:30 a.m. As the tension over the Gaza ceasefire rose, Netanyahu ordered the Israeli military to intensify operations in another Palestinian territory, the occupied West Bank, after a number of explosions blew up buses standing empty in their depots near Tel Aviv. No casualties were reported but the explosions were a reminder of the campaign of suicide attacks on public transport that killed hundreds of Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. Both Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused the other of ceasefire violations, with Hamas threatening to delay the release of hostages over what it said was Israel’s refusal to allow housing materials and other aid into Gaza, a charge Israel denied. The Red Cross said it was “concerned and unsatisfied” that the handover of the bodies had not been conducted privately and in a dignified manner. “It’s like they make a joke of us,” said 75-year-old Israeli Ilana Caspi. “We are so in grief and this is even more.” One of the main groups representing hostage families said it was “horrified and devastated” by the news that Shiri Bibas’ body had not been returned, but called for the ceasefire to continue to bring back all 70 hostages still in Gaza. “Save them from this nightmare,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. Despite the outrage over Shiri Bibas, there was no indication that Israel would not take part in talks over a second phase of the ceasefire deal. The Israel Hayom newspaper reported that Israeli negotiators were considering seeking an extension of the 42-day ceasefire, to delay moving to a second phase, which would involve talks over hard-to-resolve issues including an end to the war and the future of Hamas in Gaza. Source link

The deflation-fueled outperformance of Chinese bonds has lured in a Tokyo-based investor for the first time. A team that oversees investment in foreign government bonds at Asset Management One started buying China’s debt in October and has since boosted exposure to the country’s interest-rate risk, Hikaru Tanaka, fund manager at the Tokyo-based company, said in an interview on Friday. China’s economic struggles involving excessive debt and real estate “are what Japan experienced in the 1990s,” Tanaka said. “Our long-term view is that it’s inevitable for China to follow the path of Japan.” Source link

The vast majority of the public continues to endorse the country’s death penalty system, according to a recent government survey. In the Cabinet Office’s survey of 1,815 people between October and December, 83.1% said that the system is “unavoidable.” The percentage of respondents giving that answer exceeded 80% for the fifth consecutive time. Source link

Japan is increasingly adopting information technology to help those in need of assistance in times of disasters, such as the elderly and people with disabilities. Under such initiatives, data on safety confirmation and evacuation management, previously done mainly with paper, are digitalized to make it easier for local governments to collaborate with care managers and other supporters who know the living conditions of people needing evacuation assistance, including those living alone, in efforts to make sure that no one is left behind. Major electronics maker NEC and disaster management advisory firm Tokio Marine Resilience conducted a test with the western Tokyo city of Tama late last month of a system to confirm the safety of those in need of support during disasters. Source link

Okinawa – Before Christmas, a contingent of 105 U.S. Marines who would have been sent to Okinawa were redirected to a new base on the United States territory of Guam instead. The small reshuffling marked a major milestone: This was the first time the Marines cut their head count on Okinawa as part of a deal between Washington and Tokyo to shrink an oversized U.S. military presence on the Pacific island that dates back to World War II. Under the agreement, 9,000 Marines — just under half the force currently on the island — are eventually supposed to leave. But their departure is already two decades behind the original schedule and may not happen for more than a decade to come, until construction of replacement bases is completed. Their redeployment was agreed to in a deal signed 12 years ago, the result of negotiations and renegotiations going back to 1995, when three U.S. servicemen raped an Okinawan schoolgirl. That crime touched off mass protests that forced the United States and Japan to agree on shrinking the American bases, which were built after the United States stormed Okinawa during a bloody battle in 1945. Source link

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has worked out a draft of its 2025 policy platform calling for, among other things, promoting the use of social media as part of its efforts to win this summer’s election for the House of Councillors. Achieving a victory in the election for the upper chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, is the most important challenge for the party this year, according to the draft platform, approved by the party’s General Council on Friday. It also says that the party will formulate a Reiwa-era political reform program, with an aim to dispel public distrust of politics created by a high-profile slush funds scandal involving LDP factions. Reiwa is the name of Japan’s era that started in 2019. Source link

JERUSALEM – Israel prepared to receive six more hostages from Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees on Saturday, as a body handed over by Hamas hours earlier was confirmed to be that of hostage Shiri Bibas. The fragile truce in the war between Israel and Hamas militants had been threatened with derailment by the misidentification of a body released on Thursday as that of Bibas, who was kidnapped with her two small sons and her husband in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. However late on Friday, Hamas handed over another body, which her family said had been confirmed to be hers. Source link

Taipei – Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has met with Akie Abe, wife of the late former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Taipei. Lai told Akie at the meeting Friday that Taiwan aims to protect the values of freedom and democracy, and deepen its friendship with Japan, inheriting the philosophy and spirit of the former Japanese leader, according to the Taiwanese presidential office. He also noted that Akie, who visited the United States last December, moved the Taiwanese people by speaking for Taiwan over the Taiwan Strait issue. Taiwan is ready to make contributions to world and regional peace and prosperity in cooperation with Japan, the United States and others, Lai added. Also on Friday, Akie delivered a speech at a meeting of the Halifax International Security Forum held in the Taiwanese capital. Citing her husband’s remark that a crisis in Taiwan is a crisis in Japan, Akie said that he had wished for peace in this region more than anyone else. Lai visited Japan in 2022, when he was vice president of Taiwan, to attend the former prime minister’s funeral. Akie took part in Lai’s presidential inauguration ceremony in May 2024. Source link

The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a significant heavy snow warning again for the central prefecture of Ishikawa shortly after 5:30 a.m. Saturday. A strong winter pressure pattern brought heavy snowfall mainly to the Sea of Japan side of the Tohoku northeastern region and the Hokuriku central region, which includes Ishikawa. The agency warned of major traffic disruptions in flat areas in the northern part of the Noto region in Ishikawa. In the Ishikawa city of Wajima, snowfall in the six hours to 7 a.m. Saturday reached 27 centimeters, matching the largest recorded amount for the area. Accumulated snow could crush houses damaged by the Jan. 1, 2024, Noto Peninsula earthquake and heavy rains that hit the same peninsula in Ishikawa last September. The winter pressure pattern is forecast to remain until around Sunday, and the flow of cold air mass is expected to intensify intermittently, leading to an increase in snow accumulation in some areas, according to the agency. In the city of Nagaoka in Niigata Prefecture, snowfall in the six hours to 10 a.m. Saturday came to 32 centimeters, matching a record high for February for the area. Source link

Glendale, Arizona – Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Roki Sasaki, 23, announced on his Instagram Friday that he married a woman during the offseason. “My partner is a kind person,” he said in an interview at the Dodgers’ training camp in Glendale, Arizona. “Although I was a bit worried since it’s my first year in the majors, I hope we can work together and support each other.” Regarding what convinced him to pop the question, he explained, “I feel at ease when I’m with her. I can be myself.” On the timing of the announcement, he added, “Since games are about to begin, I wanted to share this news beforehand.” He reportedly informed his colleagues, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, on the morning of the announcement. “They were surprised. At first, they didn’t believe me,” he said, laughing, but added that they later congratulated him. Sasaki joined the Dodgers last year via the posting system from Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines and is expected to be the starting pitcher in the second game of the season opener against the Chicago Cubs at Tokyo Dome on March 19. Translated by The Japan Times Source link