They grew to become a potent image of Israel’s hostage disaster after video from the Hamas-led 2023 assault confirmed Palestinian militants main away a distraught mom clutching her two small red-haired sons. One other video confirmed the daddy of the identical household being spirited away to Gaza on a motorbike, his head bloodied.
On Friday, Hamas mentioned the 35-year-old father, Yarden Bibas, can be considered one of three male hostages to be freed on Saturday.
Israelis are nonetheless anxiously awaiting phrase of his spouse, Shiri, and their two kids, Ariel, now 5, and Kfir, who was 9 months outdated on the time of his seize — the youngest hostage taken into Gaza. Final week, Daniel Hagari, an Israeli army spokesman, appeared to brace the general public for the chance that they might not come out alive, saying the army was “gravely involved” for the mom and kids.
Hamas claimed final yr that Ms. Bibas and her kids had been killed by an Israeli airstrike, however Israeli officers have by no means confirmed that. A number of hostages had been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, by accident shot or probably because of Israeli airstrikes. The army has additionally mentioned some civilian hostages could have been killed by Israeli forces as they had been being kidnapped on the day of the Oct. 7 assault.
The Bibas household has been by “a twisted actuality from hell,” a relative, Yifat Zailer, mentioned in an interview final yr.
The household of 4 had been amongst greater than 180 residents of kibbutz Nir Oz, a farming neighborhood in southern Israel, who had been killed or kidnapped within the Oct. 7 assault. Since then, the household grew to become the faces of a nationwide trauma that sparked a fierce Israeli battle in Gaza geared toward eradicating Hamas, an onslaught that has killed greater than 47,000 Palestinians, in accordance with Gaza well being officers, who don’t distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Greater than 1,750 individuals in Israel have been killed within the battle, about 1,200 of them on the day of the Oct. 7 assault, in accordance with Israeli officers. The toll consists of greater than 890 members of the Israeli army forces.
All through greater than a yr of ready, hostage households and their supporters have carried orange balloons and worn orange shirts in honor of the lacking kids and their ginger-colored hair. They’ve held giant occasions to mark the primary two birthdays of Kfir, who has by no means celebrated one out of captivity.
All different kids seized within the Oct. 7 assault had been launched in a earlier cease-fire deal.
Israeli officers pressed Hamas negotiators in latest days for extra readability on Ms. Bibas and her kids, in accordance with Israeli media. As a feminine civilian with kids, they had been anticipated to be launched within the preliminary phases of the cease-fire deal, earlier than troopers or males, in the event that they had been alive.
Mr. Bibas was kidnapped individually from his household.
Within the early morning hours earlier than his seize, he texted his sister, Ofri Bibas-Levy, to inform her about incoming rocket hearth, in accordance with an interview she gave to Kan, the Israeli public broadcaster. Later, he texted her that militants had entered the camp. He had a gun, he informed her, however the militants had automated rifles.
He then described scenes of clashes on the kibbutz and his concern that his two younger sons wouldn’t have the ability to maintain quiet.
“It appears like the tip,” he wrote her at 9:10 within the morning.
Video from the Oct. 7 assault on Nir Oz revealed pictures of militants drilling open the Bibas household’s entrance door.
Someday earlier than her brother was captured, Ms. Bibas-Levy informed Kan, he texted her and their dad and mom that he liked them. At 9:45 within the morning, he wrote: “They’re in.”
Ms. Bibas-Levy informed Kan that the primary she discovered of her brother’s Oct. 7 kidnapping when she noticed a video of militants abducting him just a few days later.
In November 2023, not lengthy after Hamas mentioned Ms. Bibas and her kids had been killed by Israeli bombing, the group launched a video of Mr. Bibas being informed his spouse and kids had been killed, as he broke down crying.
Photos of the Bibas household have been seared into the Israeli psyche all through the disaster. They had been on the entrance web page of one of many nation’s hottest every day newspapers, Yedioth Ahronoth, below the headline “A Mom and Two Small Souls, Led Into the Darkness.”
And throughout the nation, graffiti depicting the household has appeared on the streets. Some present child Kfir holding a pink elephant, as within the picture used for his hostage poster. Others present an imagined reunion of the Bibas household, lighting a Hanukkah menorah.
“I do know they grew to become an emblem,” Ms. Bibas-Levy mentioned in a tearful information convention final February. “However for us, it’s our household, and we would like them again.”
Johnatan Reiss and Matthew Mpoke Bigg contributed reporting.
