Yarden Bibas reportedly says Hamas taunted him about Shiri and kids; he’s clinging to hope

Yarden Bibas with IDF soldiers immediately after his release from Hamas captivity, February 1 2025. (IDF)
Yarden Bibas with IDF soldiers immediately after his release from Hamas captivity, February 1 2025. (IDF)

The three hostages who were released earlier today have all said since their return that they were held in harsh conditions, that they were frequently moved around, and that food was scarce, Kan news reports.

Keith Siegel was held by Hamas captors in Gaza City along with other hostages. He was kept in tunnels for some time, but mostly was moved between homes. His captors would lock him in a room so that he would not be spotted. Food was extremely scarce. Siegel is a vegetarian but his captors would sometimes bring him meat which he ate in order to survive, according to the report.

For many months, he did not know if his son Shai had survived the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Kfar Aza. But then he heard Shai’s voice on the radio, and was immensely relieved.

Ofer Calderon and Yarden Bibas have recounted that they were held together in the early days of their captivity, Kan also reported. The terrorists beat them, put them in cages and abused them physically and mentally. They were moved often and held underground and in buildings, including with other hostages.

The captors treated Calderon like a reservist soldier, and thus he was released today in military clothing.

On his release, he asked the IDF soldiers with him for a beer, and was told he would need to take it slow because he was weak.

Bibas said he was moved from place to place in Khan Younis — in homes and tunnels. He learned Arabic. He was subjected to grave psychological abuse, including being compelled to film a video after his captors claimed his wife, Shiri, and young sons Ariel and Kfir. had been killed in an IDF strike. His captors talked incessantly to him about them, the report says. Now, Kan says, “he is clinging to hope.”

Both he and Calderon saw reporting on the campaigns for the hostages, and this gave them strength and hope, they have said.

Meanwhile, in other testimony, reported by Channel 12, from female hostages released earlier in the deal, one freed hostage said it did not seem to her that Hamas has been badly hurt. She and other hostages were transferred smoothly from house to house; there was only one mess-up when she saw another hostage in the street, she said, and she had the sense that Hamas was being run professionally.

Families of these freed hostages have recounted that they were frequently told they were “going home tomorrow,” that their captors would give them food and then take it away and laugh, and that some of them were handcuffed protractedly and subjected to heavy violence. Some were put into cages for “opposing the terrorists,” the report says. Some were held in humid tunnels with little air for long periods.

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