Family of freed hostage Yarden Bibas: He asks about wife and sons, we have no answers
‘Where are Shiri and the children? We won’t accept this uncertainty any longer,’ says Shiri’s sister; Keith Siegel’s daughter says he was uplifted by rallies, dismayed by discord
Family members of newly freed hostage Yarden Bibas demanded Monday that the government provide answers about the fate of his wife and children who are still in captivity.
“It all feels very fragile,” Ofri Bibas, Yarden’s sister, said at a press conference called by the family. “My brother returned, but my sister in-law and nephews have not. Yarden asks about them and I have no answers for him.”
During the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, as terrorists raided Kibbutz Nir Oz, the Bibas family hid in their safe room. At a certain point Yarden decided to go out, hoping to distract the terrorists and save his wife and sons. This led to him being taken separately from his family, who were also dragged to Gaza shortly thereafter, in heartwrenching scenes filmed and seen around the world.
In November 2023, Hamas claimed that Shiri and the two boys were killed in captivity. Israel did not confirm this claim, but has expressed “grave concern” for their fate. Though the three are set for release under the current ceasefire, Hamas has so far refused Israeli demands to comment on their status.
Fears for the fate of the Bibas trio have grown, as they were not among the first hostages released by Hamas, while living women and children were supposed to be freed first under the deal.
“Yarden is here and we realized again what we already knew, how strong and wonderful he is,” Ofri said. “We found out how he took care of himself in hell, with the sensitivity and humor that so characterize him.”
Dana Silberman-Sitton, Shiri Bibas’s sister, said: “I’m so happy that I’m able to hug him, to hear his voice and to look him in the eyes again. But where are Shiri and the boys? Three-quarters of our heart are still held hostage. And until they come home, it will remain missing.”
The comments came as Hebrew media reported on Hamas’s mistreatment of Yarden Bibas in captivity, which included mind games as to his family’s fate.
“We have only one question: Where are Shiri and the children? We won’t accept this uncertainty any longer. We demand answers. We demand their return. That is the state’s obligation to us, after all we have been through,” Silberman-Sitton said.
“Shiri and the boys were in a whole home, in a whole kibbutz, still in their pajamas, as the whole world and the nation saw,” she continued.
“The state failed to protect them. The state has failed for almost 500 days to get them home. No longer. It is the responsibility of the government and country to Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir,” she said.
Ofri said her brother, who spent 484 days in captivity before his release on Saturday, is slowly hearing and learning about what happened during the last 15 months since he and his family were abducted, as they help him fill in the blanks, though it is difficult for him to hear everything.
Yarden recounted that he was moved many times in captivity and given little food, his sister said, adding that he had lost much weight and muscle mass and rarely saw sunlight.
Channel 12 reported Monday that Yarden’s captors dressed him in a galabeya — a loose-fitting Egyptian gown — and held him alone in a small underground cell, separate from other hostages kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Yarden was reportedly let out once a day to eat with fellow Nir Oz hostages. On some days he received no food at all, and he lost some 15 kilograms (33 pounds) in captivity, the report said.
On one occasion, it added, Yarden spotted a friend of his from Nir Oz passing through the tunnel, and asked captors to be held with him. The request was denied, devastating Yarden, according to Channel 12.
The report, which cited testimonies that Yarden’s family had approved for publication, said he initially thought his wife and young sons had avoided his fate, and pled repeatedly with his captors for confirmation.
To silence Yarden, the terrorists reportedly first told him that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir survived and had been sighted in Tel Aviv. Later, the report said, the captors ordered a female hostage to tell Yarden that his wife and young sons had been killed. When the female hostage refused, the captors coerced another, male hostage to convey the news, which he tearfully did, leading Yarden to break down — at which point his Hamas captors pulled out a camera and filmed him, Channel 12 said.
That video was later issued by Hamas as propaganda.
Ofri Bibas said her brother realizes that he is no longer anonymous, and how beloved he and his family are, which moves him but is not easy to get used to. His path to rehabilitation has only begun, she said, but will not be complete until his family returns.
Ofri thanked the government for making the difficult decision to agree to the deal with Hamas, which requires Israel, in the deal’s first 42-day phase, to release some 1,900 Palestinian security prisoners including numerous murderers in exchange for 33 hostages, and called on the government to ensure the potential second and third stages of the deal, which would include a negotiated permanent ceasefire in the enclave, are also implemented, in order to get all the hostages home.
According to Channel 12, some of the hostages who have returned in the current deal have reported meeting late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in the terror group’s tunnels — echoing similar reports about captivity survivors who returned in the first hostage deal in November 2023. Sinwar, who was killed by Israel in October 2024, is thought to have used Israeli hostages as human shields.
Siegel family speaks
The family of Keith Siegel, an American-Israeli hostage who was also released on Saturday, held a separate press conference, in which they shared early testimony from him about the inhumane conditions of his captivity, and asked forgiveness of all those who had lost loved ones in the war against Hamas, while thanking the fallen soldiers and bereaved families for their sacrifice.
“Our Keith returned to us, how good it is to have him home!” said Keith’s wife Aviva Siegel, who was also kidnapped on October 7 and held for almost two months before her release as part of a previous hostage-ceasefire deal.
“For me, to see Keith with us, living, breathing, eating, smiling, being emotional, is the most amazing, the most huge, the most unbelievable thing,” she said.
The returnee’s wife thanked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the negotiating team who secured the deal, the government, the cabinet, and the US government, as well as former US president Joe Biden, for their support and work in bringing Keith home.
Aviva Siegel also read her message in English after completing her remarks in Hebrew.
Overcoming hell
Her daughter Shir offered a longer message, relating that her father, who returned thin and weak, but walking on his own two feet, was held in inhumane conditions in Gaza for 484 days, by terrorists who abused him emotionally and physically.
Keith barely saw daylight, was starved for long periods of time, and held in solitude for certain periods of time, said Shir.
“My father went through 484 days, with the knowledge that any moment could be the last moment of his life — he knew that the cursed terrorists could execute him, or that ‘military pressure’ would kill him, as he heard had happened to dozens of other hostages.”
“I always knew my father was strong, but I never realized how strong,” she said. “My father didn’t just survive captivity; he overcame it by acting with determination and faith.”
According to Shir, her father told the family that the few times he was exposed to the media during his captivity, he was strengthened by seeing Israelis and the army fighting to bring the hostages home — and that he was also broken by seeing the division, violence, and incitement in Israeli society.
“One of the first things my father said after coming home was, ‘What can I do to help bring everyone home?’” she said.
“With teary eyes and a hoarse throat, my father isn’t willing to give up. Even though he is very weak, and with a long rehabilitation in front of him, he wants to do what he can to bring them out of hell,” she said.
Siegel said Israeli society must look at those returning from captivity to learn about Israel itself as a nation and a people.
She said that since his return, her father had asked them to tell him what had happened in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, their home, during the Hamas attack, and to go over the list of names of the 64 people who were killed.
“He couldn’t believe that so many of his friends and neighbors were killed,” she said.
Then, the freed hostage’s daughter asked those present to bend their heads, to beg forgiveness.
“I’m sorry to those who lost their loved ones so that my father and the other hostages could come home,” she said. “I’m sorry to those who received a knock on the door [informing them of the death of a loved one] so that we would receive life.
“I’m sorry to the citizens, soldiers, and security forces who sacrificed their lives for us, for the State of Israel. I’m sorry and thank you. And I’m sorry for the hostages who were alive and were killed in captivity. The dream was to see them with us at home, and it shouldn’t have happened this way.”
Finally, she referred to the internal conflict in Israel regarding the hostage-ceasefire deal through which her father was released, which also calls for the release of Palestinian terror convicts, including hundreds serving life sentences for involvement in deadly terror attacks.
Siegel said that all of Israel shares the fear, expressed by opponents of the deal, over its costs. “If only the way to bring everyone home were easier,” she said.
She concluded that while she knows not every Israeli agrees with the deal, she believes that “we, as Israelis, as Jews, as people and a society, will learn how to deal with the complexities, and most importantly, to be unified after this complex period.”
