TEL AVIV — Hamas is willing to cede political power and administrative governance of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian unity government, but would not disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is achieved, Basem Naim, a senior political official for Hamas, told NBC News. “We are ready today, if not yesterday, to step back from governance to hand it over to a body, a government, a committee, that is ready to run the Gaza Strip,” Naim said. Naim made his comments during a critical impasse: The first phase of a tenuous deal between Hamas and Israel is set to end on Saturday, and no arrangements have been made for continuing the ceasefire. While there have been few publicly acknowledged negotiations to extend the truce into a second phase, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said it will soon send a diplomatic delegation to Cairo to continue talks. Naim said that beyond that public announcement, Hamas had not been officially notified of Israel's intention to resume negotiations. It was unclear whether Israeli officials would seek to extend the first phase of the agreement or negotiate terms for a second phase, which could ultimately lead to a more permanent ceasefire and the eventual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip. Naim said Israel was deliberately delaying further negotiations to create a pretext for returning to war against Hamas. “We believe that this is intentionally done to escalate the situation or to push the second-phase negotiations under the threat to return back to war and not to withdraw from the Gaza Strip,” he said. Israeli troops are supposed to start withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border area on Saturday, marking the end of the ceasefire's first phase. However, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen told public broadcaster Kan on Thursday that Israel has demanded that their military stay in the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. The last step of the agreement’s six-week first phase came overnight, when Israel released more than 600 Palestinian prisoners after Hamas handed over the corpses of four Israeli hostages killed during captivity in the Gaza Strip. Under the ceasefire’s terms — which were reached with help from intermediaries Qatar and Egypt in late January, after more than a year of fraught negotiations — talks on the second stage should have begun weeks ago. But rather than returning to the negotiating table, each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the agreement’s terms. Several of the weekly exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners have been dogged by last-minute accusations and near-cancellations. Hamas has stated before that it is willing to cede governance of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian body, and Israel has made clear that any plan for Gaza’s “day after” should not include Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on southern Israel. On that day, about 1,200 people were killed and 250 were kidnapped, according to local officials, sparking Israel's 15-month war on Gaza that has killed at least 48,300 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, and destroyed much of the enclave. The thorniest question standing in the way of negotiating the second phase of an agreement remains whether Hamas will disarm. Netanyahu has declared Hamas’ destruction as the primary goal of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip — sometimes, his critics have said, superseding the freedom and welfare of the Israeli hostages still being held there. Though he reiterated Hamas’ offer to integrate into a Palestinian unity government, Basem Naim said the group would only disarm and transform into a purely political party if Palestinians are granted an independent political state — a condition that Netanyahu and his right-wing allies in government have repeatedly rejected. “These are two different tracks. The arms are related to the existence or the presence of the occupation,” he said, referring to Israel's ongoing presence in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. If an independent Palestinian state is created, Naim said, “we are ready again to become a political party and to integrate our fighters into a Palestinian national army.” Israeli military leaders have repeatedly made clear that they are prepared to return to war if the agreement collapses, going so far as to call up reservists for renewed fighting. Though Hamas remains committed to the ceasefire agreement, Naim said, the group is also preparing for renewed fighting. “If they decide to escalate and to return back to war, we are preparing ourselves for all options,” he said. “We have no choice other than to defend ourselves, as we have done already along the 15 months.”

An Israeli minister said Israel was in a stronger position to negotiate now than on the eve of the ceasefire because it has full backing from the Trump administration. Militant group Hamas said on Thursday it was ready to begin talks on the second phase of a ceasefire in Gaza after several hundred Palestinians were released from Israeli jails overnight in return for the bodies of four Israeli hostages. In a statement early Thursday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had ordered a delegation of negotiators to be send to Cairo, Egypt the same day to continue talks. It was the final exchange of the six-week first phase of a ceasefire that came into effect on January 19 in the war in Gaza. Talks have yet to begin on a second phase, meant to lead ultimately to a permanent end to the war that began in October 2023 when Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns and Israel responded with a retaliatory assault that has devastated the enclave. Hamas said on Thursday the only way remaining hostages in Gaza would be freed is through commitment to the ceasefire. “We renew our full commitment to the ceasefire agreement, and confirm our readiness to enter into negotiations for the second phase of the agreement,” the group said in a statement. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said returning the remaining 59 hostages was a top priority, but that there will be no agreement on the second stage of the ceasefire if Hamas is left intact in Gaza. “Our demands are clear,” Cohen, a security cabinet member, told public broadcaster Kan. Cohen said Israel was in a stronger position to negotiate now than it was on the eve of the ceasefire because it has full backing from the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, which this month began shipping heavy bombs. Egyptian mediators on Wednesday secured the handover of the bodies of the final four hostages in the deal’s first phase, in return for 620 Palestinians either detained by Israeli forces in Gaza or jailed in Israel. Israel had earlier refused to release prisoners on Saturday after Hamas handed over six hostages in a staged ceremony. Hamas had been displaying living hostages and coffins carrying hostage remains on stage in front of a crowd in Gaza before handing them over, to sharp criticism including from the United Nations. The final handover did not include such a ceremony. Israel received coffins carrying the remains of the four hostages, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in the early hours of Thursday. President Isaac Herzog in a post on X confirmed the bodies as those of Tsachi Idan, Itzhak Elgarat, Ohad Yahalomi and Shlomo Mantzur, all of whom were abducted during the October 7, 2023, attack from their kibbutz homes near Gaza. “In this difficult hour, there is some comfort in the fact that they will be laid to rest in the tomb of Israel,” he wrote. Hamas took 251 hostages and killed about 1,200 people in its October raid on southern Israeli communities, according to Israel. At least 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza, Palestinian authorities say. The war has laid waste to the crowded coastal enclave and displaced the majority of its population multiple times. The Palestinians released overnight include 445 men and 24 women and minors detained in Gaza, as well as 151 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis, according to a Hamas source. One bus transported detainees from Israel’s Ofer prison in the Occupied West Bank to Ramallah where cheering crowds had gathered to greet them. Released prisoner Bilal Yassin, 42, told Reuters he had been in Israeli detention for 20 years. “Our sacrifices and imprisonment were not in vain,” Yassin said. “We had confidence in the [Palestinian] resistance.” Nearly 100 more Palestinian prisoners were handed over to Egypt, where they will stay until another country accepts them, according to a Hamas source and Egyptian media.

TEL AVIV, Israel — An investigation by the Israeli military has determined that Hamas was able to carry out the deadliest attack in Israeli history on Oct. 7, 2023, because the much more powerful Israeli army misjudged the militant group’s intentions and underestimated its capabilities. The findings, released Thursday, could pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch a widely demanded broader inquiry to examine the political decision-making that preceded the attack, which triggered the war in Gaza. Many Israelis believe the mistakes of Oct. 7 extend beyond the military, and they blame Netanyahu for what they view as a failed strategy of deterrence and containment in the years leading up to the attack. That strategy included allowing Qatar to send suitcases of cash into Gaza and sidelining Hamas’ rival, the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The prime minister has not taken responsibility, saying he will answer tough questions only after the war, which has been paused for nearly six weeks by a tenuous ceasefire. Despite public pressure, including from the families of the roughly 1,200 people killed in the Oct. 7 attack and the 251 taken as hostages into Gaza, Netanyahu has resisted calls for a commission of inquiry. The military’s main findings were that the region’s most powerful and sophisticated military misread Hamas’ intentions, underestimated its capabilities and was wholly unprepared for the surprise attack by thousands of heavily armed militants in the early morning hours of a major Jewish holiday. The military’s findings are in line with past conclusions reached by officials and analysts. The military released only a summary of the report and military officials outlined its findings. “Oct. 7 was a complete failure,” said one military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. A central misconception was that Hamas, which seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in 2007, was more interested in governing the territory than fighting Israel, the inquiry found. The military also misjudged the militant group’s capabilities. Military planners had envisioned that, at worst, Hamas could stage a ground invasion from up to eight border points, the official said. In fact, Hamas had more than 60 attack routes. Intelligence assessed in the aftermath of the attack has shown Hamas came close to staging the offensive on three earlier occasions but delayed it for unknown reasons, the official said. The official said that in the hours before the attack, there were signs that something was amiss, including when Hamas fighters switched their phones over to the Israeli network. The perception that Hamas did not want war guided decision makers away from taking action that might have thwarted the attack. The Israeli military official said intelligence shows that Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack who was killed last October, had begun planning it as early as 2017. With the military off guard on a holiday weekend, Hamas launched a heavy wave of rockets that allowed thousands of fighters to burst through the security fence or fly over it on hang gliders. They knocked out surveillance cameras and quickly overwhelmed hundreds of soldiers stationed along the border. From there they advanced to key highway intersections and attacked troops dispatched to the area, including some senior officers, disrupting the military’s command and control, according to a second military official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. For the first three hours after the attack, Hamas fighters marauded through border communities and a music festival with little resistance. That was when most of the 251 hostages were taken and most people were killed, the official said. The official said the chaos led to friendly fire incidents, although he said there were not many, without disclosing a figure. It took hours for the military to regain control and days until the area was fully cleared of militants. According to the first official, the report blamed the military for being overconfident in its knowledge and not showing enough doubt in its core concepts and beliefs. It did not place blame on any individual soldiers or officers, but is likely to pave the way for a reckoning in the military and eventual dismissals. Some high-ranking officers have already resigned, including the former head of military intelligence and Israel’s top general, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, who steps down next week.

Shiri Bibas was 32 and her sons, Ariel and Kfir, were 4 years old and just shy of 9 months old when they were abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks. Thousands of people lined the streets of Israel on Wednesday to pay their respects to Shiri Bibas and her two young sons as their funeral procession made its way to a cemetery in the south of the country. Bibas was 32 and her sons, Ariel and Kfir, were 4 years old and just shy of 9 months old when they were taken hostage by Hamas during the Oct. 7 2023, terrorist attacks. Clutching her children as fighters barked orders, she looked terrified in a video taken near their home in kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel. The fate of the three hostages had become an emotional open sore for Israelis during the period between their kidnapping and the return of their bodies late last week and early this week. While Hamas said early in the war that the three had been killed, the Israeli government had been unable to confirm their deaths. The boys' remains were returned Saturday, following a ceremony which saw Hamas militants parade their coffins on stage in scenes that have been widely condemned by human rights groups and the international community. The remains of Oded Lifshitz, 84, who was also abducted from kibbutz Nir Oz, were also returned that day. His remains were laid to rest Tuesday. Forensic examinations later showed that a casket bearing the image of Shiri Bibas did not contain her body, although Hamas returned her remains Monday. Her husband and the children’s father, Yarden Bibas, 35, was also abducted Oct. 7 2023, and returned alive Feb. 1, apparently unaware that his family had died. As black vans carried the caskets and grieving relatives through the central city of Rishon LeZion, huge crowds of Israelis stood on side streets and main roads and wept. Many held blue-and-white Israeli flags punctuated by the orange balloons and clothing that mourners and activists have adopted in honor of the Bibas boys' red hair. One image showed Shiri Bibas’ sister, Dana Silberman-Sitton, reaching out from one of the black vans to hold the hand of a well-wisher in another vehicle. Smaller groups of mourners did the same on the rural highways that the procession used to reach the Tsoher cemetery in the south of the country, where they were laid to rest. While the family requested that only those invited attend the funeral, it asked that the ceremony be screened in Tel Aviv's "Hostage Square," given the level of heartache the family's fate has generated across the country. Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, the square has become a focal point for protesters to vent their frustrations with the Israeli government over the return of the 251 hostages captured Oct. 7, 2023, when about 1,200 people were also killed per Israeli tallies. Israel’s ensuing military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave's Hamas-run Health Ministry, and forcibly displaced most of its 2.3 million population.

Israel's bombardment has shattered the enclave’s hospitals, making it difficult, if not impossible, for Palestinians to get basic life-saving medical help. Bundled up in baby blankets and wrapped in the warmth of her father’s arms, Sham Al-Shanbari came into the world at a time of relative calm in Gaza, born two weeks ago during the hard-won ceasefire between Hamas and Israel. The war in Gaza claimed her life all the same. On Monday night, Sham became one of at least seven children in Gaza to die of cold in recent days, according to local health officials. Her family, along with hundreds of thousands of other civilians, has been forced to live in tents and makeshift shelters after Israeli bombing made their homes unlivable. "At around midnight, her mother nursed her and put her to sleep," Sham's father, Mohamad Tawfiq Al -Shanbari, told an NBC News' crew Beit in Hanoun in northeast Gaza on Tuesday. In the morning, "we tried to wake her, but she wouldn't wake up," he said, before watching as his daughter was placed into a tiny shallow grave. The cold has killed six other children over roughly the past two weeks, according to Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, director-general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, where families whose homes have been destroyed are forced to sleep in tents and other makeshift shelters. Sila Abdul Qader, less than 2 months old, was the latest to die from the cold weather, Al-Bursh said Wednesday. Al-Shanbari said his daughter had been "100% fine, playing and smiling like usual" in the hours before she died. But, he said, "I live in a tent. It's cold. How could the girl survive?" Night-time temperatures in Gaza over the past week have fallen below 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), according to meteorological data. Babies are particularly vulnerable to the cold as they are unable to regulate their body temperature in the same way as adults. More than a year of Israeli bombing and shelling has also shattered the enclave's hospitals, making it difficult, if not impossible, for Palestinians to get basic life-saving medical help. At least 70% of infrastructure in Gaza, including hospitals and schools, and 60% of homes and 65% of roads have been destroyed, the United Nations said this month. More than 48,300 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to local health officials, since Israel launched its offensive after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks, in which it said some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage. Medical Aid for Palestinians, a charity based in the U.K., said its team at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis had documented the death of at least one 2-month-old baby in recent days. It said the infant had died from the cold, while three other children were also brought to the hospital recently with cold-related injuries. "All admitted children were previously healthy, with no underlying conditions, but presented with cold injuries and hypothermia," the organization said in a statement sent over WhatsApp. So far this year, at least 15 children have been admitted to Nasser Hospital with cold-related injuries and illness, it added. The deaths come as fears grow about the fragile ceasefire, with the two sides yet to negotiate the second phase of the deal. A proposal from President Donald Trump to "take over" the Gaza Strip has also sparked fears in the region. Early Wednesday, Trump shared on his Truth Social platform what appeared to be an AI-generated video showing a hypothetical future Gaza in which he is pictured lying on a sunbed alongside Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while another scene shows a gold statue in Trump's likeness. In Khan Younis, Najeih Al-Najar worried that her baby boy, Youssef, 2 months old, might not survive the war as he lay on a hospital bed. "My son suddenly got very cold and turned bluish, and his feet swelled," she told NBC News. "Children are dying. They bring them dead." Winter has only made Al-Najar's fear harder to shake. "I see death in my son," she said.

The pope has sought to uphold a tradition he began nearly a year and a half ago of calling the Holy Family parish in Gaza City each night. He's in critical condition and battling double pneumonia, but Pope Francis has upheld a tradition he began nearly a year and a half ago at the start of the war in Gaza, making nightly calls to the only Catholic parish in the enclave to offer words of support and prayer. And now, as the ailing pontiff receives care at Rome's Gemelli hospital, Catholic Palestinians in Gaza are offering Francis their own prayers, with leaders and members of the Holy Family parish in northern Gaza praying for his recovery. "Let’s unite in praying for the healing of Pope Francis," Yusuf Asad, a priest of the Holy Family parish, wrote in a post on Facebook early Tuesday as he offered a prayer for the 88-year-old pope's recovery, as he has done each day since Francis was admitted to the hospital Feb. 14. News of Francis' condition has sent shock waves through this small community in the Gaza Strip, with the Holy Family parish's prayers for him highlighting the deep bond formed between the pontiff and the Palestinian church throughout the devastating war. Since two days after Israel began bombing the Gaza Strip following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, Francis has made nightly calls to Gabriele Romanelli, parish priest at Holy Family, as well as to Asad, Romanelli's assistant, according to Vatican News. When Francis was diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs, it was unclear whether he would be able to continue the tradition as he received care. On Monday morning, however, the Vatican said that even as the pontiff remained in critical condition, he had shown a "slight improvement" and was able to resume work from his hospital bed, including calling the pastor of the Gaza parish "to express his fatherly closeness." The Holy See said Tuesday that Francis' condition remained the same. While his calls with the Holy Family parish last just a few minutes, according to Vatican News, they have been a way for him to stay connected with Gaza's Christian community, with hundreds of people, including Christians and Muslims, taking shelter in the parish throughout Israel's offensive in the territory. At the end of a general audience on Jan. 22, Francis described the cautious optimism that leaders of the parish expressed after the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. “They’re happy. They ate lentils," Francis said at the time, according to Vatican News, adding: "We must pray for peace." In a video published by Vatican News last month, Francis could be seen on a video call with Asad, saying “Good evening, how are you?” in Italian and asking him what he ate that day, with Asad laughing before telling the pontiff the whole community had been able to eat chicken. “They want to thank you, Holy Father. They pray for you because you always pray for them,” Yusuf told the pope, according to Vatican News. Francis has been outspoken in condemning the violence unfolding in Gaza over the past 16 months, with more than 48,000 people, including thousands of children, killed since Israel launched its offensive in the territory, according to local health authorities. Last month, Francis stepped up criticisms of Israel's military campaign, calling the humanitarian situation in Gaza "very serious and shameful" in a yearly address to diplomats delivered on his behalf by an aide. The pontiff was also outspoken in his criticism of an incident that unfolded at the Holy Family parish in December 2023, when a mother and her adult daughter were shot dead while walking inside the grounds of the parish, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Israel at the time denied responsibility for the incident, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office saying that according to an Israel Defense Forces investigation, claims that Israel was responsible for their deaths were "not true." Fears have grown in recent days for the future of the current ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, with the two sides yet to negotiate the second phase of the truce. Israel said this week that it will delay the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, Netanyahu's office saying it would do so “until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies” that have marked previous releases. Meanwhile, Israel has continued to ramp up operations in the occupied West Bank, with IDF tanks seen moving into the territory for the first time in decades this past week. Israeli bulldozers have demolished large swaths of the Jenin refugee camp and appeared to be clearing wide roads through its previously narrow alleyways, Reuters reported, with thousands of Palestinians leaving their homes in Jenin and nearby Tulkarm.

Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. JENIN, West Bank — Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a “dangerous escalation,” after the defense minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return. Associated Press journalists saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel. Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas. Palestinians view the deadly raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to “increase the intensity of the activity to thwart terrorism” in all refugee camps in the West Bank. “We will not allow the return of residents, and we will not allow terrorism to return and grow,” he said. Earlier, Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare for “an extended stay” in some of the West Bank’s urban refugee camps from which about 40,000 Palestinians have fled, leaving them “emptied of residents.” The camps are home to descendants of Palestinians who fled during wars with Israel decades ago. It was not clear how long Palestinians would be prevented from returning. Katz said Israeli troops would stay “for the coming year.” Netanyahu said they would stay “as long as needed.” Tanks were last deployed in the West Bank in 2002, when Israel fought a deadly Palestinian uprising. The Palestinian foreign ministry called the Israeli moves “a dangerous escalation of the situation in the West Bank,” and urged the international community to intervene in what it termed Israel’s illegal “aggression.” “Even if they stay, we will return to the camp at the end,” said Mohamed al-Sadi, one of those displaced from Jenin. “This camp is ours. We have no other place to go."

The funeral aimed to project unity and resilience for a Hezbollah severely weakened by the war with Israel. Tens of thousands of people gathered at a stadium in Lebanon’s capital Beirut to mourn Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a public funeral nearly five months after he was killed by an Israeli airstrike. Determined to project strength despite the devastating losses it has faced since Nasrallah’s death — including leadership uncertainty and mounting Israeli military pressure — a weakened Hezbollah staged the funeral as a display of unity and resilience. Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27 when Israeli forces bombed a building in southern Beirut where he was meeting with Hezbollah commanders. It was a stunning assassination that shocked supporters in Lebanon and across the region, as Israel celebrated killing a man who had orchestrated attacks on the country and posed a threat to its security. Hezbollah began exchanging fire with Israel in support of Palestinians on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Israel declared war on Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks. The 14-month conflict lead to an Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon and prolonged bombing of Beirut that targeted Hezbollah leadership and led to Nasrallah’s death. The 48,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Hezbollah’s stronghold of southern Beirut was awash with the yellow and green of Hezbollah flags as mourners paid tribute to the divisive leader who led the militant group for more than three decades. A line of hundreds of cars was seen driving toward the stadium at dawn, and supporters held parallel tributes, including in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Yemen and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. According to Reuters, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi was was expected to attend, alongside an Iraqi delegation including Shi’ite politicians and militia commanders. A delegation from Yemen’s Houthis was also expected to attend. After Sunday’s funeral, his body will be buried at a site nearby. The funeral will also honor Hashem Safieddine, who led Hezbollah for just a week after Nasrallah’s death before he was also killed by Israel. He is to be buried in the south of the country on Monday. After Nasrallah’s death, his body was buried temporarily next to his son, Hadi, who died fighting for Hezbollah in 1997. Nasrallah’s official funeral was delayed until Israeli forces had withdrawn from south Lebanon under the terms of a ceasefire deal that ended the war. As his funeral took place, the Israel Defense Forces launched airstrikes in southern Lebanon on “a military site containing rocket launchers and weapons” where it said it had identified Hezbollah activity. According to the Lebanese National News Agency, the strikes injured at least one girl, who was transported to the Lebanese Italian Hospital for treatment. The attack during his funeral highlighted Israel’s ongoing military pressure on the group that defined the final year of Nasrallah’s life. Revered by Hezbollah supporters, the Islamic scholar transformed the group from a militant resistance faction to an influential political and military force in the region. While thousands paid tribute to the former leader, he left behind a legacy marked by deep admiration and intense controversy. Born into a poor Shiite family in Beirut in 1960, Nasrallah’s rise to prominence was shaped by Lebanon’s turbulent history and his deep ideological commitments. In 1982, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Nasrallah helped found Hezbollah, a group focused on resisting Israeli occupation and known for its precision attacks. Designated a terrorist organization by many countries, including the United States, Canada and the European Union, Hezbollah attacks included the 1983 Beirut embassy bombing that killed 63 people, including 17 Americans, and the Marine barracks bombing that same year in the capital, which killed 307 people, including 241 American military personnel. Nasrallah became its leader in 1992, marking a transformative era for Hezbollah in which it expanded its military capabilities and political influence in Lebanon. Under his guidance, Hezbollah fought the 2006 war with Israel, as rockets rained down on northern Israel while Israeli airstrikes ravaged southern Lebanon for 34 days. His influence soared during the conflict, where he was widely regarded as a symbol of defiance across the Arab world. Hezbollah’s extensive media apparatus amplified his charisma, making him an influential figure beyond Lebanon’s borders. He also forged deep alliances with Iran and Syria, with Iran providing critical financial, military and political support that helped Hezbollah become a major regional force. However, his decision to send fighters to Syria to support President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s civil war marked a turning point. Once seen as the leader of resistance, he became increasingly viewed as an agent of Iran’s regional ambitions. Accusations of Hezbollah’s involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri further eroded his standing in parts of the Arab world. As Israel launched its ground invasion in southern Lebanon and bombarded its capital from the skies, Nasrallah’s death delivered a major blow early in Israel’s offensive, significantly weakening the Iran-backed group while raising questions about its future. To his supporters, he remained a steadfast defender of Shia Muslims and Lebanon’s sovereignty. To his critics, he was a divisive figure, aligning Hezbollah’s trajectory with Tehran at the expense of national unity. His contested legacy is emblematic of the shifting political and sectarian currents of the Middle East, but his funeral underscored the enduring devotion of his followers.

The release was to be part of the final prisoner-hostage exchange of the deal’s first phase, and would have been the largest group of Palestinians freed so far. The families of some 600 prisoners remain in limbo after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Saturday that he would delay their release, a decision that violated the exchange terms of the ceasefire agreement after Hamas had earlier released six Israeli hostages. Netanyahu cited “Hamas’s repeated violations, including the ceremonies that humiliate our hostages and the cynical exploitation of our hostages for propaganda purposes” in announcing the delay. Hamas has been criticized for conducting heavily choreographed ceremonies each time it released hostages back to Israel. Netanyahu said he would not free this batch of Palestinian prisoners and detainees “until the release of the next hostages has been assured, and without the humiliating ceremonies.” There are 63 hostages remaining in Gaza, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office, 27 of whom are presumed alive. No arrangements have yet been made for their release. Hamas condemned the delay and called the accusations surrounding the ceremonies a “flimsy pretext aimed at evading the agreement’s obligations.” It added that the delay exposed the ongoing ceasefire agreement “to grave danger” and urged the United States and other international partners to pressure Israel into releasing the Palestinians held in its custody. The release of the Palestinian prisoners and detainees — the largest group to be freed under the ceasefire agreement — was part of the final prisoner-hostage exchange of the first stage of the ceasefire deal. It would have included 445 detainees who were not sentenced to time in prison, as well as 24 women and children. More than 400 of these prisoners had been destined for Gaza, where families had been waiting in the biting cold to received their loved ones. Asia Khaleel Fayyad, who arrived a day early to meet her husband after traveling with her son and father-in-law, waited anxiously by the bus shelter with her son on her lap, fearful that the reunion might be delayed indefinitely. “The stress has killed us,” Fayyad told the NBC News crew. “We cannot wait more than this. We have lost all hope. We have been waiting since yesterday and we arrived yesterday in order to meet them early. We are really afraid that they will kill our joy and make us meet them only tomorrow or after tomorrow.” The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club called Israel’s decision to delay the release of over 600 Palestinians a form of “organized terrorism against the prisoners and their families.” A number of Red Cross vehicles including a bus had been waiting outside Ofer Prison in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Saturday. The first phase of the ceasefire is due to end March 1, and with Phase 2 still uncertain, the latest delay has become a significant challenge to the agreement. The ceasefire agreement has held despite a number of setbacks. Hamas accused Israel of blocking aid into Gaza while Israel has accused Hamas of conducting humiliating ceremonies during the hostage releases. Last week, Hamas delivered a coffin to Israel that it claimed carried the remains of hostage Shiri Bibas. The Israel Defense Forces later said that testing showed the body was someone else’s. The incident caused outrage from Israeli officials, and the IDF called it “a very serious violation” of the ceasefire. Hamas called it a mistake and said Bibas’ remains may have been “mixed” with others’ when they were hit by an Israeli airstrike. Hamas returned another set of human remains to Israel early Saturday that were confirmed to be those of Bibas.

Israel has accused Hamas of murdering Shiri Bibas’ and her sons. Hamas says they were killed in an airstrike — and that her remains may have been ‘mixed’ with others. Grief, outrage and confusion consumed Israel on Friday after its military said Hamas had failed to return the body of Shiri Bibas, the mother of the two youngest hostages taken captive Oct. 7, 2023. While Hamas returned the bodies of her sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were just 4 years old and 9 months old when they were captured, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday that identification efforts found the female remains belonged to an “anonymous body.” Accusing Hamas of “an unimaginably cynical act,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Friday said Hamas had not returned “Shiri alongside her small children — these little angels — and instead placed the body of a Gazan woman in the coffin.” Later, Hamas’ media office said Bibas’ remains may have been “mixed” with others when they were hit by an Israeli airstrike that killed her and her sons. Israel has accused Hamas of murdering the Bibas family members in November 2023, the month after they were taken hostage. Hamas also released the body of 84-year-old Oded Lifshitz on Thursday in a grisly ceremony that saw four black caskets placed on a stage against a backdrop of slogans which said that Israel had killed Shiri Bibas and her sons using “USA bombs.” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the scenes in a post on X late Thursday. “Under international law, any handover of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” he wrote. Netanyahu on Friday vowed to “act decisively to bring Shiri home,” along with the rest of the hostages. “We will ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and wicked violation of the agreement,” he said. The incident underscored the fragility of the ceasefire agreement reached with the help of Qatari and Egyptian mediators last month and backed by the United States. But six living people, Eliya Cohen, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Tal Shoham, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, who are currently in Hamas captivity, are expected to be released Saturday. Mengistu and Al-Sayed entered Gaza more than a decade ago and have been held by the militant group since then. Their release will bring to an end the first phase of the current ceasefire deal and, with the second phase of the agreement yet to be finalized, the future of the truce is shrouded in uncertainty. Calling Hamas’ apparent failure to return the body of Shira Bibas as promised a “serious violation,” far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a post on X on Friday that “the only solution is the destruction of Hamas.” His comments came after a series of explosions on buses in a parking lot rocked central Israel on Thursday in what authorities suspected was a militant attack. Israeli Police spokesman Haim Sargrof told Israeli TV that the explosives appeared to match those used in the occupied West Bank, though he declined to elaborate on why, The Associated Press reported. The attack came as Israel continued to carry out a sweeping military assault in the northern West Bank, as part of the operation it has dubbed "Iron Wall." Israel has said it is aimed at dismantling militant groups and to prevent future attacks on the country. The International Rescue Committee — a global aid organization —warned in a news release Thursday that the “ongoing military operations in the West Bank” had “displaced thousands, destroyed water networks, and restricted movement.” Children were among those killed in the operations, it said. It came after the United Nations agency that assists Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said earlier this month that the forced displacement of Palestinian communities in the West Bank’s north was escalating “at an alarming pace.”