(Credit: Philly Daily)
Pro-Israel rallies were talking place around the city, Thursday, in response to the return of four deceased hostages in Israel earlier in the day.
Dozens of individuals gathered on the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum at approximately 5P.M. to decry the death of the hostages who have been in custody of the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
"Today was a tough day in Israel," said Dafna Ofer, who organized the Art Museum rally. "We have had four murdered hostages returned.
The four bodies that were returned were thought to be Shiri Bibas and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, whose plight has been well documented since Hamas' attack in Israel 16 months ago.
However, Israel's National Institute of Forensic medicine could only identify two of the bodies - the two young boys. Meaning that Bibas was not among those bodies returned, despite Hamas promising she would be included.
A banner displayed at the rally at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Credit: Philly Daily)
The fourth body was supposed to have been Oded Lifshitz, a retired journalist and activist and the oldest hostage being held captive, however the remains of the fourth body were not his.
A total of 28 hostages have been released by Hamas since the negotiated ceasefire began on Jan. 19.
In the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 hostages are supposed to be released - eight of which are dead - in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel. An additional five Thai citizens who were working in Israel on the day of the attack were freed in January as part of a different negotiation.
Hamas militants took 251 hostages during the attack in October, 2023 that kicked off the war in Gaza. More than 60 hostages remain in Hamas custody, of which about half are believed to be dead. The remainder have either been released, rescued, or their bodies recovered.
A Philadelphia police officer told Philly Daily that rallies were taking place elsewhere in the city as well.
Hours after returning the dead hostages, three buses in a parking lot in Bat Yam, a city just south of Tel Aviv exploded in what TPS-IL, an Israeli news agency reported was a terrorist attack.
No fatalities were reported, but other explosive devices were found underneath at least two other buses that had not detonated.
A protestor at the rally at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (Credit: Philly Daily)
All of the devices were identical and were equipped with timing devices set to detonate on Friday.
As a result of this explosion, Israeli officials put a stop on all bus and train services to check for more explosives.
"We need to determine if a single suspect placed explosives on a number of buses, or if there were multiple suspects," police spokesperson Haim Sargrof told reporters according to Fox News.
Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.
