Israel expected to release 90 Palestinians, 9 serving life

Hostages Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon and Yarden Bibas to be freed by Hamas Saturday

Israel has expressed ‘grave concern’ for the fate of Bibas’s wife and small sons, who are still held in Gaza after all living children and women are supposed to have been freed

Israeli hostages slated to be freed from Gaza on February 1, 2025: (L-R) Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Ofer Calderon. (Courtesy)
Israeli hostages slated to be freed from Gaza on February 1, 2025: (L-R) Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Ofer Calderon. (Courtesy)

Three Israeli hostages slated for release by Hamas from Gaza on Saturday were named Friday as Ofer Calderon, 54, Keith Siegel, 65, and Yarden Bibas, 35, officials said.

Israeli officials said that the families had been notified and that Israel accepted the Hamas list.

Siegel, a dual Israeli-US citizen originally from North Carolina, was taken captive with his wife Aviva from Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Aviva was freed during a previous ceasefire in November 2023.

Calderon was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 with two of his children, who were both freed in the previous ceasefire.

Bibas, his wife Shiri, and children Ariel and Kfir were all abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Kfir was 10-months-old and Ariel was 4 at the time. Yarden was wounded during his kidnapping, and was seen being abducted to Gaza separately from his wife and children.

Hamas has claimed that Shiri and the two boys were killed in captivity. Israel has not confirmed this claim, but has expressed “grave concern” for their fate. Earlier this week, Israel reportedly demanded that Hamas clarify the condition of Shiri and the two small boys, who are all on the list of 33 hostages being freed in the first, 42-day phase of the hostage-ceasefire deal.

Fears for the fate of the Bibas trio have grown, as Hamas did not return them among the first hostages released. Living women and children were supposed to be freed first under the deal, followed by injured and infirm men and men over 50.

Related: The Bibas family remains captive in Gaza. A nation hopes against hope for their return

Hamas has said that 15 of the 23 hostages yet to be returned under the current phase are alive, without offering specifics on the condition of individuals, and that eight are dead. Israel has said that this matches its own information.

So far, 10 Israeli hostages have been freed as part of the current deal, which mandates the release of 33 so-called “humanitarian hostages” during its first 42-day phase, with fighting stopped in the Strip. Five Thai hostages have also been freed.

As those hostages are gradually released, Israel is to release some 1,904 Palestinian security prisoners, including more than 100 serving life sentences for deadly terror attacks. Ninety security prisoners are to be freed Saturday, nine of them believed to be terrorists serving life terms.

The 33 hostages slated to be returned in phase one of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Row 1 (L-R): Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Arbel Yehoud, Doron Steinbrecher, Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Shiri Bibas; Row 2: Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Danielle Gilboa, Naama Levy, Ohad Ben-Ami, Gadi Moshe Moses; Row 3: Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon, Eli Sharabi, Itzik Elgarat, Shlomo Mantzur, Ohad Yahalomi, Oded Lifshitz; Row 4: Tsahi Idan, Hisham al-Sayed, Yarden Bibas, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Yair Horn, Omer Wenkert, Sasha Trufanov; Row 5: Eliya Cohen, Or Levy, Avera Mengistu, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov (all photos courtesy)

The three-phase deal’s later stages are subject to negotiations with the stated goal of reaching a “sustainable calm” in the enclave, alongside the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, the release of more Palestinian security prisoners and an Israeli withdrawal from the Strip.

The hostages are among 251 Israelis and foreigners kidnapped on October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, amid rampant acts of brutality and overt targeting of civilians.

Keith Seigel

Siegel, 65, a US citizen originally from North Carolina, was taken captive with his wife, Aviva Siegel, 62, from their home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, when terrorists attacked their community, killing and abducting Israelis and burning kibbutz homes.

Keith and Aviva Siegel, taken captive by Hamas terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023 (Courtesy)

The couple was driven into Gaza in their own car, along with a neighbor and her two children.

Aviva Siegel was released in November 2023 as part of the temporary ceasefire deal, which was brokered by Qatar and the United States.

Within a week, Aviva Siegel was at a massive rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, holding up a placard with Keith’s picture.

Freed hostage Aviva Siegel, whose husband Keith remains captive in Gaza, speaks during a rally outside the UN headquarters in New York calling for a hostage release-ceasefire deal, September 20, 2024. (Hostages Families Forum)

Their daughter Shir Siegel who also lives on Kfar Aza, was away that weekend, and tried that morning to call her father, who didn’t answer his phone.

Her call to her mother’s phone was cut off, and they wrote on the family WhatsApp group that they couldn’t speak.

Keith Siegel is known as a quiet, kind man, dedicated to his wife, children and grandchildren. In April 2024, Hamas released a propaganda video showing Seigel alive alongside fellow hostage Omri Miran, 46.

Hostages Keith Siegel (right) and Omri Miran are seen in a Hamas propaganda video aired April 27, 2024. (Screenshot: Telegram)

In the edited three-minute-long video, Siegel and Miran identified themselves, spoke directly to their families, and said they are hoping for a hostage deal that would see them and other hostages returned home.

Ofer Calderon

Calderon, 54, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 with two of his four children, Erez and Sahar, when Hamas terrorists stormed the kibbutz, killing over 100 residents and some 15 foreign agricultural workers, and taking about 80 hostages.

Ofer Calderon was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from Kibbutz Nir Oz (Courtesy)

Calderon and his children initially escaped from their shelter through the window during the Hamas onslaught, into the fields of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where they were later taken hostage.

Sahar Calderon, 16, and Erez Calderon, 12, were released during the November 2023 ceasefire-hostage deal.

Hadas Calderon, Ofer’s ex-wife, was in the sealed room of her home on the kibbutz, holding the door handle against the terrorists. Their elder son, Rotem, 19, also survived in the safe room of his apartment, in the kibbutz area for young adults. His older sister Gaya, 21, was in Tel Aviv.

Grandmother Carmela Dan was at her house down the street with Hadas Calderon’s niece, Noya Dan. Their bodies were found on October 19, 2023.

Sahar Calderon speaks at a rally at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on August 31, 2024. (Paulina Patimer/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Ofer, who holds dual Israeli-French citizenship, marked his 53rd and 54th birthdays in captivity in Gaza.

Yarden Bibas

Bibas, 35, was kidnapped separately from his wife and children, who were all taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

On the morning of October 7, Bibas continuously texted with his sister, Ofri, letting her know what was happening in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he lived with Shiri, 32 and their two boys, Ariel, 4 and Kfir, then 9 months.

“At 6:30 a.m., he wrote about the rockets,” Ofri said in a Kan interview. Yarden wrote about the terrorists entering the kibbutz, and then he wrote, “‘Fuck,’” said Ofri.

He texted his sister that there was terrible fighting, and intense pressure to try and hold off the wave of Hamas terrorists who entered Nir Oz. The terrorists ended up committing a brutal massacre, in which some 180 of the kibbutz’s 400 residents were killed or abducted.

He told his sister that his little boys didn’t know how to keep quiet, and he told her it felt like the end.

Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel, 4, and baby Kfir, are abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. (Screenshot)

Several hours later, the family saw a video circulating of Shiri, holding both boys in her arms, a look of terror on her face as she was surrounded by terrorists, her boys facing her chest, a blanket covering them.

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Yarden is not in the video. Neither are Shiri’s parents, Margit Silberman Shnaider and her husband Yosi Silberman, who also lived on Nir Oz and were presumed missing but whose bodies were eventually identified.

Later, the Bibas family found a video of Yarden, injured with blood around his head, surrounded by terrorists.

Terrorists abduct Yarden Bibas to Gaza after kidnapping him from his home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in Israel near the Gaza border, on Oct. 7, 2023. His wife Shiri and son Ariel, 4, and baby Kfir, were also abducted. (AP Photo)

Ariel, now 5, and Kfir, who turned 2 earlier this month, are the only children left in Gaza, after the November 2023 deal that saw the release of more than 100 of the people seized in the attack.

In November 2023, the IDF said that the Bibas family had been transferred by Hamas to another Palestinian terror group, in Khan Younis. That same month, Hamas released a propaganda video indicating Yarden was alive.

In February 2024, the IDF released what it said was recently discovered footage showing Shiri Bibas and her two young children surrounded by gunmen in the Gaza Strip hours after they were abducted, and expressed serious fears over the captive family.

The Bibas family, father Yarden (left), Ariel (second from left), Shiri and baby Kfir (Courtesy)

On Wednesday, Israel demanded that Hamas clarify the condition of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, Hebrew media reported.

IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said last week that there are “grave concerns” for their fate.

Relatives stated Monday that they are still holding onto hope that the Bibas family will return from captivity in Gaza, although Shiri and the boys should have been among the first seven civilian hostages, released in the last 10 days.

“We said then, and we say now: We hold on to hope and continue waiting for their return. We await clarity regarding their condition,” said the wider family in the statement.

Israelis attend a rally calling for the release of the hostages held in Gaza, at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, January 25, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Once Seigel, Calderon and Bibas are released on Saturday, 13 of the 33 first-phase hostages will have been returned to Israel, along with the five Thai hostages released by Hamas on Thursday separately from the deal between Israel and the terror group.

According to a list given by the Hamas terror group to Israel on Monday, eight of the 33 hostages that were slated to be released during the first phase of the ceasefire are dead, meaning that 12 of the remaining 20 first-phase hostages are alive.

Officials said that the Hamas document matched Israel’s existing information.

Whether hostages are alive or dead inside Gaza has been a heartbreaking question for waiting families who have pushed Israel’s government to reach a deal to free them, fearing that time was running out.

Seventy-nine of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

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 this month.

Israel is set to free 90 Palestinian security prisoners on Saturday in exchange for the three Israeli hostages, “nine of whom are serving life sentences and 81 of whom have long sentences,” the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club spokeswoman Amani Sarahneh told AFP on Friday.

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