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Israel Names 6 Hostages Hamas Is Expected To Release From Captivity on Saturday 

Families celebrate the expected release of six hostages from Gaza, while others mourn the dead and demand urgent action for those still held 

Six Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are set to be released on Saturday, while the bodies of four others will be transferred to Israel on Thursday, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. The announcement brought both relief and heartbreak to the families of those affected, as efforts continue to secure the release of those still in captivity. 

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum welcomed the news but stressed that time is running out for those who remain imprisoned. “We are grateful for each life returned, but we cannot rest until all our loved ones are home,” the organization said in a statement. The group urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to advance negotiations to secure the freedom of all remaining hostages. 

Four of the six individuals set to return—Eliya Cohen, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, and Omer Wenkert—were kidnapped on October 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and abducting more than 240. The other two, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avera Mengistu, have been held in Gaza for nearly a decade after crossing the border under unclear circumstances. 

The Hostages Returning Home 

Eliya Cohen, 27, was abducted from the Nova Music Festival, where he had been celebrating with his fiancée, Ziv Abud, her nephew, Amit, and Amit’s girlfriend, Karin. As Hamas gunmen stormed the area, Cohen and his group ran for shelter. Amit and Karin were killed in the attack, while Ziv survived by hiding under their bodies for hours. Cohen was taken into Gaza. 

Upon hearing the news of his impending release, Ziv posted on social media: “Eliya is coming home!” 

Tal Shoham, 40, was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, where he was visiting family for the holiday of Simchat Torah. He holds Austrian and Italian citizenship and worked in economic forecasting while volunteering with Magen David Adom. He was kidnapped along with his wife, Adi, their children Naveh and Yahel, and several other family members. His wife and children were released as part of a November hostage deal, but Shoham remained in captivity. 

Omer Shem Tov, 22, a Herzliya resident with aspirations of becoming an actor, was also abducted from the Nova Music Festival. He had been at the event with Maya and Itay Regev, who were later released during a ceasefire deal in November. 

His release is being celebrated by his friends and family, including Maya Regev, who wrote on Instagram: “A few more days and you will be with us. Hold on a little longer.” 

Omer Wenkert, 23, from Gedera, was also taken from the Nova festival. Described as charismatic and full of life, he had been working as a restaurant manager and was preparing to start a restaurant management course. His family has expressed concern over his health, as he suffers from colitis, a chronic autoimmune disease affecting the digestive tract. They fear his captors may not have provided him with necessary medication. 

His friend, Kim Damti, who attended the festival with him, was killed while hiding in a rocket shelter. 

Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, a Bedouin Israeli from Hura, has been held by Hamas since 2015, after crossing into Gaza. His family has stated that he suffers from schizophrenia and other mental health disorders. In 2022, Hamas released a video of him lying in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask, marking the first confirmation of his condition since his abduction. 

His father, Shaaban Al-Sayed, reacted cautiously to the news, telling Israeli media: “We are not celebrating yet. We were informed that he is returning home, but we will wait until Saturday. We thank the public for their support during this long period.” 

Avera Mengistu, 39, an Ethiopian-born Israeli from Ashkelon, crossed into Gaza in September 2014 following an argument with his mother. He has been held captive ever since. His family and human rights organizations have long pushed for his release, noting that he was suffering from mental health issues at the time of his disappearance. 

For years, there was no information on his condition until Hamas released a video in January 2023 showing him alive. 

The Return of Four Bodies 

While six hostages are set to come home alive, the remains of four others will be returned to Israel on Thursday. Israeli authorities have not publicly identified them, though Hamas has said that they will include the bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were 9 months old and 4 years old, respectively, when they were abducted. 

The Push for Further Negotiations 

Israeli officials have been engaged in indirect negotiations with Hamas, with mediation efforts led by Egypt, Qatar, and the US. Talks have stalled over Hamas’ demands, which reportedly include an end to Israeli military operations. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that Israel will not agree to a permanent ceasefire without the full return of all hostages and the removal of Hamas from power. 

Families of the captives have been vocal in urging the government to continue its efforts. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum has organized protests and campaigns calling for a more aggressive approach to securing the release of those still in captivity. 

While the return of these six individuals is a breakthrough, the forum emphasized that it is only a partial victory. “As we embrace our returning family members, we must emphasize that many hostages remain in captivity, and time is of the essence,” the organization said. 

International Efforts and Response 

The hostage crisis has drawn widespread international attention, with US, European, and Arab leaders working to broker further agreements. 

Despite international pressure, Hamas has sought to extract greater concessions from Israel. Reports from released hostages have detailed harsh conditions in captivity, adding urgency to the calls for further action. 

As Israel prepares to welcome back the six hostages on Saturday, families continue to push for the release of those still in captivity. While the news brings hope to some, it also serves as a painful reminder that many remain missing, with their fate unknown. 

For the families of those still held, the fight is far from over. 

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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday reversed course on a decision to end a long-running extradition treaty with the United States after reaching an agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

The reversal came as the Trump administration has struck agreements with a number of Central American nations to receive deported migrants from other nations, often after pressure was applied or offers of support made on other issues.

“I announce that I have reached an agreement with the new American administration so that the extradition treaty will continue with the necessary safeguards for the state of Honduras,” Castro wrote in a post on X.

Honduras was not a stop on U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent Central American tour and while Honduras has continued to receive its own deportees, neither Honduras nor the U.S. have said there is a deal for Honduras to also receive migrants from other nations.

In February, Mexico started sending 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to postpone threatened 25% tariffs. Last month, Colombia’s firebrand leftist leader caved in a showdown after Trump threatened steep tariffs and sanctions after the Colombian government said it wouldn’t take deportation flights in U.S. military aircraft.

On Tuesday, Honduran Foreign Minister Eduardo Enrique Reina said the extradition treaty was part of direct talks with the White House, in which the governments discussed five key issues: migration, military agreements, free trade agreements, investment in trade infrastructure in Honduras and extradition.

It wasn’t immediately clear what, if anything, Honduras would get from the agreement.

Reina added that the extradition treaty would include “important, normal safeguards,” namely that cases of extradition would not be politicized in any way and based on legal factors.

It’s a change of tone from Castro’s administration. In August, Castro said that she would end the treaty after the U.S. ambassador in Honduras questioned a visit of Honduran military officials to Venezuela to meet with officials accused by the State Department of drug trafficking.

The comments by the diplomat stroked anger in the Honduran government, which decided to end the treaty. The treaty has seen high-profile crime suspects including Castro’s predecessor former President Juan Orlando Hernández extradited to the U.S. He’s serving a 45-year prison sentence in the U.S. for drug trafficking.

Days after Castro announced she was canceling the treaty, her brother-in-law Carlos Zelaya, brother of former President Manuel Zelaya, appeared in a video in which he is seen with several well-known drug traffickers negotiating a bribe. The video fueled anger in many Hondurans, who said that her real reason to end the treaty was to protect her family.

Reina said Tuesday the latest decision was important to ensure the democratic integrity of the country’s upcoming elections, a process in which the Honduran military is a guarantor.

“We are not here to favor politicians or criminals, but, if in any way, the extradition treaty is used to destabilize the government or elections through an attack on the armed forces, that does concern us,” he said.

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GENEVA (Reuters) – Three children were executed by the Rwanda-backed M23 after they donned weapons and uniforms abandoned by the Congolese army in the eastern city of Bukavu, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday, voicing alarm at the incident and other violations since the rebels arrived there.

“Our Office has confirmed cases of summary execution of children by M23 after they entered the city of Bukavu last week,” U.N. Human Rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing in Geneva.

She also voiced concern for journalists, human rights defenders and members of civil society organisations who are seeking protection from reprisals by M23.

(Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Rachel More)

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JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel will begin negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, including an exchange of the remaining Israeli hostages with Palestinian detainees, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday, adding that Israel demanded a complete demilitarisation of the enclave.

Negotiations for the second phase of the deal were supposed to be under way before the first phase ends on March 2, but Qatar said the talks have not officially started yet.

A “Hezbollah model” in Gaza would not be acceptable to Israel “and therefore we need a total demilitarisation of Gaza and no presence of the Palestinian Authority”, Saar said in a press conference.

He added that Israel was aware of an alternative plan by Arab states for Gaza, made to counter U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to redevelop the strip under U.S. control, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said is worthy of exploration.

Israel would not support a plan that would see civilian control of Gaza transferred from Hamas to the Palestinian authority, Saar added.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Writing by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Ed Osmond and Alison Williams)

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MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was serious about negotiating a settlement to end the war in Ukraine as high-level talks began in Saudi Arabia, and that Russia would prefer to achieve all its aims peacefully.

Putin sent Russia’s army into Ukraine in 2022. He has repeatedly said he is ready to discuss an end to the war that reflects the reality on the ground, where advancing Russian forces now control nearly a fifth of Ukrainian territory.

Western intelligence, European leaders and former U.S. president Joe Biden have repeatedly asserted that they do not think Putin really wants peace, though U.S. President Donald Trump says he does think Putin is serious.

“President Putin has been repeating his words about his readiness for peace talks from the very beginning,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“The main thing for us is to achieve our goals. And, of course, we prefer peaceful means to achieve our goals.”

Peskov said there was no understanding yet about a date for a meeting between Putin and Trump, though the Riyadh talks might bring clarity. It was, he said, impossible to give any sense of the talks as they had only just begun.

Asked if Putin was willing specifically to negotiate with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Peskov said Putin had repeatedly said that he was.

But he also said any agreement would have to take into account a possible challenge to Zelenskiy’s legitimacy, a reference to the fact that Zelenskiy has remained in office beyond the end of his normal term because Ukraine is under martial law.

Peskov said joining the European Union was Ukraine’s sovereign right if it wished to do so, but that Moscow’s position was different when it came to joining military alliances.

Moscow has said one of the goals of what it calls its “special military operation” is to avert any prospect of Ukraine joining the transatlantic NATO defence alliance, which it would consider a threat to Russia’s security.

(Reporting by Anastasiya Lyrchikova; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kevin Liffey)

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(Reuters) – Boat traffic returned to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lake Kivu on Tuesday as ports re-opened in two cities which have fallen to M23 rebels, a development the United Nations said could facilitate access to humanitarian aid after weeks of fighting and looting.

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group is trying to show it can administer the cities of Goma and Bukavu as government and U.N. officials warn of a looming humanitarian catastrophe including potential outbreaks of cholera and other diseases.

The World Food Programme said looters stole some 7,000 metric tons of food supplies as the Congolese military withdrew from Bukavu and rebels entered the city over the weekend.

A passenger boat from Bukavu to Goma left on Tuesday morning, operator Lweni Ndale said, adding it was the first he had sent since late January, shortly after Goma fell to M23.

The U.N. humanitarian office said the resumption of boat traffic would allow aid groups to get supplies to Idjwi island on Lake Kivu where more than 100,000 people had sought refuge from fighting.

However the airport in Goma, which the U.N. describes as a lifeline for aid, remains closed, which could make it difficult to scale up operations.

The arrival of M23 in Bukavu has dealt another blow to Kinshasa’s authority and escalated a conflict that has fanned fears of an all-out regional war.

Congolese and allied Burundian troops withdrew from the city to avoid fighting in densely populated areas.

The well-equipped M23 is the latest in a long line of ethnic Tutsi-led rebel movements to emerge in Congo’s volatile east.

Rwanda rejects allegations from Congo, the United Nations and Western powers that it supports the group with arms and troops. It says it is defending itself against the threat from a Hutu militia, which it says is fighting with the Congolese military.

Congo rejects Rwanda’s complaints and says Rwanda has used its proxy militias to loot its minerals.

Congo’s ambassador to the U.N., Zenon Mukongo Gay, blamed “inaction” by the U.N. Security Council for the fall of Bukavu and the reinforcement of rebel troops in the area, in a letter to the council’s president seen by Reuters on Monday.

(Reporting by Congo Newsroom; Additional reporting by Sonia Rolley in Paris and Michelle Nichols in New York; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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BANGKOK (AP) — New government regulations on social media in Vietnam give authorities increased powers to prevent dissent and control the news, along with the tools to more easily track down critics and silence them, according to an analysis released Tuesday.

Vietnam’s authorities implemented “Decree 147” in December, tightening regulations on social media companies like Facebook, X, YouTube and TikTok in a bid to further stifle criticism, said Ben Swanton, one of the authors of the report by The 88 Project, a group focused on human rights and free speech issues in Vietnam.

“Any challenge to the government and the Communist Party, any significant challenge to their official narrative of events, is perceived by them as a situation that is getting out of control,” he said in an interview from Thailand.

Among other things, the decree requires users to verify their accounts with phone numbers or national ID cards that must be provided to the government upon request, and for the social media companies to store their data in Vietnam.

It also prevents social media users from engaging in citizen journalism or posting information about suspected government wrongdoing, and requires companies to remove posts deemed illegal within 24 hours. The decree requires companies to allow authorities access to their internal search engines so that it can identify offending content.

Social media companies have until late March to be in compliance, and it is not yet clear whether they will try to push back. TikTok and Facebook refused to comment on their plans, while X and Google, which owns YouTube, did not return emails.

Already, however, researchers have noticed a decline in political posts, Swanton said.

“In the last several years Hanoi has imprisoned or forced into exile the country’s most prominent independent journalists, reformers, human rights activists, and dissidents. This has had a chilling effect that encourages people to engage in self-censorship,” he said. “Decree 147 is designed to turn this chilling effect into an icy stranglehold on free speech.”

Vietnamese authorities did not respond to a request for comment on the Project 88 analysis or the intent behind the new decree.

About 65 million Vietnamese have Facebook accounts, roughly two-thirds of the population, and some 35 million have YouTube accounts. About half of Vietnam’s people say they get most of their news from social media.

Already, the government frequently insists critical posts from outside the country be geo-blocked so they cannot be accessed inside Vietnam and it has moved quickly to censor posts it deems unacceptable, like a video of a top minister eating a gold-encrusted steak in London in 2021 while Vietnam was on COVID-19 lockdown.

In October, a prominent Vietnamese blogger was sentenced to 12 years in prison for articles and videos exposing the corruption of government officials, and in January, a prominent Vietnamese lawyer was sentenced to three years in jail for Facebook posts criticizing the country’s former top judge.

Project 88 researchers said the new decree will also give authorities better tools to go after those who just read or watch social media posts as well.

They noted a case last June in which police in one province went through the profiles of 13,328 members of a Facebook group that had information deemed “hostile to the state” and identified 20 people in their province, went to their homes and demanded they leave the group.

“If implemented as intended, Decree 147 would likely make it less time consuming to identify members of groups like this and ensure that groups with anti-state content will be blocked in the country,” the report said.

It urges social media companies and others affected to refuse to comply with provisions of the decree that violate free expression rights, and for the United States and United Nations to pressure Vietnam to repeal the measure.

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Huawei on Tuesday held a global launch for the industry’s first tri-foldable phone, which analysts said marked a symbolic victory for the Chinese tech giant amid U.S. technology curbs. But challenges over pricing, longevity, supply and app constraints may limit its success.

Huawei said at a launch event in Kuala Lumpur that the Huawei Mate XT, first unveiled in China five months ago, will be priced at 3,499 euros ($3,662). Although dubbed a trifold, the phone has three mini-panels and folds only twice. The company says it’s the thinnest foldable phone at 3.6 millimeters (0.14 inches), with a 10.2-inch screen similar to an Apple iPad.

“Right now, Huawei kind of stands alone as an innovator” with the trifold design, said Bryan Ma, vice president of device research with the market intelligence firm International Data Corporation.

Huawei reached the position despite “not getting access to chips, to Google services. All these things basically have been huge roadblocks in front of Huawei,” Ma said, adding that the “resurgence we’re seeing from them over the past year has been quite a bit of a victory.”

Huawei, China’s first global tech brand, is at the center of a U.S.-China battle over trade and technology. Washington in 2019 severed Huawei’s access to U.S. components and technology, including Google’s music and other smartphone services, making Huawei’s phone less appealing to users. It has also barred global vendors from using U.S. technology to produce components for Huawei.

American officials say Huawei is a security risk, which the company denies. China’s government has accused Washington of misusing security warnings to contain a rising competitor to U.S. technology companies.

Huawei launched the Mate XT in China on Sept. 20 last year, the same day Apple launched its iPhone 16 series in global markets. But with its steep price tag, the Mate XT “is not a mainstream product that people are going to jump for,” Ma said.

At the Kuala Lumpur event, Huawei also unveiled its MatePad Pro tablet and Free Arc, its first open-ear earbuds with ear hooks and other wearable devices.

While Huawei’s cutting-edge devices showcase its technological prowess, its long-term success remains uncertain given ongoing challenges over global supply chain constraints, chip availability and limitations on the software ecosystem, said Ruby Lu, an analyst with the research firm TrendForce.

“System limitations, particularly the lack of Google Mobile Services, means its international market potential remains constrained,” Lu said.

IDC’s Ma said Huawei dominated the foldable phone market in China with 49% market share last year. In the global market, it had 23% market share, trailing behind Samsung’s 33% share in 2024, he said. IDC predicted that total foldable phone shipments worldwide could surge to 45.7 million units by 2028, from over 20 million last year.

While most major brands have entered the foldable segments, Lu said Apple has yet to release a competing product.

“Once Apple enters the market, it is expected to significantly influence and stimulate further growth in the foldable phone sector,” Lu added.

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — A judge in Argentina was selected Monday to investigate allegations of fraud against President Javier Milei for his brief promotion of a cryptocurrency whose value collapsed within hours of its launch last week.

Milei and his office denied involvement with creators of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, saying he initially drew attention to it Friday as an entrepreneurial project that might benefit Argentina but learned more about it later and then withdrew his support.

Lawyers in Argentina filed fraud complaints against the libertarian President on Sunday. The case was assigned Monday to Judge María Servini, head of Federal Court No. 1 in Buenos Aires. She doesn’t have a deadline to finish investigating the allegations.

In a tweet Friday evening that coincided with the launch of the $LIBRA crypto coin, Milei said that it was aimed at “encouraging economic growth by funding small businesses and startups.”

It enjoyed a brief spike in value above $4 billion in market capitalization, although its value began to decline amid comments of critics that it could be a scam. Milei deleted the post a few hours later as the value of the cryptocurrency was collapsing in a downturn that caused millions of dollars in losses to many of its new investors.

The coin, developed by KIP Protocol and Hayden Davis, could be obtained by accessing a link that directed users to a website called vivalalibertadproject.com, referring to the well-known phrase “Viva la libertad!” that Milei uses to close speeches and messages on his social media.

The president’s office said in a statement that Milei was not involved in any stage of the cryptocurrency’s development and decided to remove his post to avoid speculation and limit further exposure, following the public reaction to the project’s launch.

“The president shared a post on his personal accounts announcing the launch of KIP Protocol’s project, as he does daily with many entrepreneurs who wish to launch projects in Argentina to create jobs and attract investments,” the president’s office said.

After deleting the post, Milei said on X he was unaware of the details of the cryptocurrency, and accused his political opponents of trying to exploit the episode.

“I was not aware of the details of the project, and after getting informed, I decided not to continue promoting it (which is why I deleted the tweet),” he said.

His office also said that the country’s Anti-Corruption Office, which operates under the executive branch, would investigate the case.

Jonatan Baldiviezo, a lawyer and one of the plaintiffs, said Sunday that the plaintiffs allege that Milei’s actions were part of an illicit association to commit “an indeterminate number of frauds” in the episode.

“Within this illicit association, the crime of fraud was committed, in which the president’s actions were essential,” he said.

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PARIS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday that a U.S. security commitment was the only way to ensure lasting peace in Ukraine and it was too early to say how many British peacekeeping troops he would be willing to deploy.

When asked what a U.S. security guarantee would mean and what role any peacekeeping troops would have, Starmer said discussions were still at an early stage.

But Starmer said that it was clear after an emergency meeting of European leaders in Paris that leaders would need to raise defence spending and take more responsibility for security on the continent.

“Europe must play its role, and I’m prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others, if there is a lasting peace agreement, but there must be a U.S. backstop, because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again,” Starmer told reporters.

Starmer said he expected there would be another round of talks with European leaders on Ukraine after he returns from a trip to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington next week to discuss Kyiv’s almost three-year war with Russia.

On Sunday, Starmer become the first European leader to say he is ready to put peacekeeping troops in Ukraine.

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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