Netanyahu vows to "annihilate Hamas" after hostage deaths

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday (February 20) said the country was "united in unbearable grief" with the return of four bodies of Israeli hostages, including two very young captives of Hamas.

Black coffins were placed on a stage by Hamas as the bodies of three of the most prominent Israeli hostages held in Gaza, the two Bibas children and their mother, were finally returned under the ceasefire deal.

The two red-headed children, Ariel, four, and Kfir, ten months old, and their mother, Shiri Bibas, 32, were held by Hamas since October 7, when they were snatched from their kibbutz home in southern Israel and their plight led to an outpouring of anger and grief.

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