Bibas family: ‘World came crashing down’ when Shiri, kids weren’t slated for release
Relatives of only family still held hostage decry media’s failure to convey ‘our pain, our struggle’ after Hamas violated deal by releasing captive female soldiers before civilian women
Relatives of the hostage Bibas family released a statement Saturday describing how their “world came crashing down” when they discovered that Shiri Silberman Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, were left off the list of captives to be released later in the day.
Hamas had announced that it would release four captive female soldiers — Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Daniella Gilboa and Karina Ariev — in a breach of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, which requires the terror group to prioritize the release of civilian women and children. Silberman Bibas’s husband Yarden Bibas is slated to be released later in the deal’s first phase. The four soldiers were freed in late morning.
After the release of the four, IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said Hamas had violated the deal by not first freeing all female civilians. He said Israel would make sure that civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud, who is believed by Israel to be alive, is released soon, along with Shiri Bibas and her two small children, Ariel and baby Kfir.
Regarding the Bibas family, he said there are “grave concerns for their fate.” He said Israel expects more information on the Bibas family soon.
Israel announced on Saturday afternoon that it would not allow the scheduled return of Gazans to the north of the Strip until Yehoud’s release was “arranged” by Hamas. The decision was reportedly taken during security consultations held by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday night, soon after Hamas had released the names of the four female soldiers it was freeing, but announced after the releases so as not to jeopardize them.
The Bibas family’s statement assailed Israeli media coverage of the Hamas announcement for neglecting to mention “our pain, our struggle, and, most importantly, the crucial discussion about the complexity and tragedy of them not being on the list,”
“Does the grave concern for their lives cancel out the fact that they are civilians in captivity who must be brought home?” asked the family. “Does the grave concern for Shiri’s life mean that there is no longer a need to display her photo as a kidnapped civilian in Gaza whose fate remains unknown?”
“The answer is — no.”
“Liri, Daniela, Naama, and Karina — We are waiting to see you smiling, wrapped in love, at home with your incredible families,” the statement continued. “Shiri, Yarden, Ariel, and Kfir — We will continue to hope and demand your return. It’s not over until it’s over,” the relatives’ statement said.
With the release of the four captive surveillance soldiers on Saturday, three women will remain in Hamas captivity — a fifth soldier, Agam Berger and civilians Shiri Bibas and Arbel Yehoud — as well as the two small Bibas boys, Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2.
Israel on Thursday conveyed to Hamas that it expected Yehoud to be among the four released this weekend. Yehoud is thought to be held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group and not Hamas. When Hamas on Friday announced the names of the four soldiers it would be releasing, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a security consultation to decide whether to halt the deal but ultimately determined that the nature of the violation did not warrant such a move.
Instead, Israel registered a protest with the mediators, and reportedly considered possible punitive action.
Under the hostage deal, during the agreement’s 42-day first phase, Hamas is to release 33 hostages: civilian women and children, then female soldiers, then elderly men followed by those deemed extremely ill. The first three hostages, female civilians Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari and Romi Gonen, were released on Sunday.
Hamas kidnapped 251 people on October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people, sparking the war in Gaza.
It is believed that 91 of the hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
The terror group released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
