The fate of a child and his four-year-old brother, taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, 2023, has been on everyone’s mind in Israel since the Gaza ceasefire was announced.
Kfir Bibas, whose second birthday falls on Saturday, is the youngest of 251 people captured by militants during Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel more than 15 months ago.
Hamas said in November 2023 that Kfir, his brother Ariel, and their mother Shiri were killed in an Israeli strike, but the Israeli military has yet to confirm their deaths, leading many to hold out hope that they are still alive. Are alive.
“Imagining them coming back alive gives me great joy,” musician Hila Shlomo told AFP in “Hostages Square”, a central plaza in Israel’s main commercial city of Tel Aviv. behalf.
“What happened to these children is a symbol, a symbol of man-made evil, but also a symbol of the triumph of life if we manage to free them, no matter what the cost,” the 23-year-old said candidly. Said.
The boys and their mother are on the list of 33 hostages to be released during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, along with the boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, although this does not guarantee they are among the survivors.
Earlier, hostages released during the short-lived ceasefire said that Yarden Bibas was being held apart from his family, and Hamas has not said he is dead.
For days now, countless messages of support have been circulating on social media along with photos of Kfir Bibas, a sign that many people are still holding out hope.
The footage published by Hamas of Shiri Bibas, holding tightly to her two red-haired boys, taken from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, became one of the enduring images of the tragedy that occurred in Israel that day.
– ‘heart wrenching’ –
Further on at the intersection, two retirees, Osnat Niska and Yaffa Wolfensohn, also became emotional at the mention of the Bibas boys.
The two friends were attending a weekly meeting organized for the liberation of hostages.
“I think about them, about these two little redheads, and I shudder,” said Niska, 70, whose grandchildren attended nursery school with the Bibas brothers.
“They’re really an icon… the two youngest children have been abducted, and it would be heartbreaking if they were no longer alive,” Wolfensohn said.
At a soccer game in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Wednesday evening, Hapoel Beersheba players held orange balls, the color associated with red-haired Bibas children.
During Saturday night’s regular protest, Kfir and Ariel’s grandfather, Elie Bibas, was among the speakers addressing the crowd.
“Next Saturday, our Kefir will celebrate his second birthday in captivity. How is it possible that my grandson, who was kidnapped at the age of eight and a half months, is celebrating his second birthday in hell?” he asked.
“How is it that he still hasn’t celebrated his birthday in his home country with his father, his family?”
Relatives of the Bibas family declined to speak about the ceasefire agreement when contacted by AFP, but issued a statement on Wednesday saying they were “aware of information that our family will be part of the first phase of the agreement, and Shiri And the children will be freed.
But, he added, “We will not take anything for granted until our loved ones cross the border.”
Thirty-three Israeli hostages – including women and children – will be released in the initial 42-day phase of the agreement, which could become a permanent ceasefire, according to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, according to his country. Played the role of mediator during the months-long negotiations.
“All hostages are in our hearts,” said Nelly Ben Israel, a librarian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “But I think I’m not wrong when I say that the first thing we think about is the young Biebs.”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
