The 9 children still held hostage in Gaza, yet to be freed under truce deal
They have been held in the Hamas-run enclave since October 7, including the youngest hostage, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas
Thirty children held by Gazan terrorists have been released as part of a four-day ceasefire deal with Hamas that began Friday, but 10 still remain in the Strip. The terror group has said it plans to release 20 more hostages as part of a two-day extension to the deal. (*Update: One of the 10, Mia Leimberg, was released on Tuesday night.)
Fifty women and children were freed over four days in exchange for 150 Palestinians serving time in Israeli prison for security offenses as part of the initial truce. One Israeli man was freed under a separate deal.
Israel is expected to release 60 prisoners, all women and minors, as part of the two-day extension.
Some of the Israeli children in Gaza are being held by terror groups other than Hamas, and the terror group has claimed that not all of their whereabouts are known.
The following is a list of children believed to be still held hostage in Gaza:
Kfir Bibas, 10 months, and Ariel Bibas, 4
Kfir, the youngest hostage in Gaza, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his brother Ariel and parents, Yarden and Shiri.
Due to Kfir’s extraordinarily young age, the redheaded children have become some of the most recognizable among the hostages.
The family was kidnapped by Hamas, but at some point was transferred to another Palestinian terror group in Gaza, the military said Monday.
On the day of their capture, a video circulated of Shiri holding her children 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.
There was also a video of Yarden, injured with blood on his head, surrounded by terrorists.
Gali Tarshansky, 13
Gali was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri after her brother, Lior, 15, was killed.
The two were hiding in their safe room, along with their father Ilya, when terrorists broke into their home.
Gali and Ilya jumped out of the window and survived. The father was not taken captive and Lior’s body was identified later.
The parents are divorced and the mother Reuma Aroussi was in her own home on the kibbutz.
The two siblings were an inseparable pair, said family members in a video.
Gali is known as a fun-loving child who loves making TikToks, cooking and baking, and playing volleyball in a local team. She’s a dog lover, and her dog, Mocha, was killed by terrorists on October 7.
Amit Shani, 16
Amit was the only member of his family taken by Hamas terrorists on October 7 during the massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri.
He was kidnapped in front of his mother Tal, 47.
Amit and his neighbor, Yossi Sharabi, along with Sharabi’s daughter’s visiting boyfriend, Ofir Engel, were all ordered into a black car.
Amit has been described as a passionate runner and surfer.
Ofir Engel, 18
Ofir, kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, had his birthday in Gaza.
Engel, a dual Dutch-Israeli citizen from Kibbutz Ramat Rachel adjacent to Jerusalem, was visiting his girlfriend.
He was in touch with his family from 6 a.m. that morning when rocket sirens first signaled the start of an attack.
Ofir was last in contact at around 12:30 p.m. when he told his family that he was hiding with the Sharabi family in their sealed room.
Hamas gunmen broke into the family’s sealed room and took everyone out, then they told the women to sit on the grass and shot the family dog.
Bilal Ziyadne, 18, and Aisha Ziyadne, 17
Bilal and Aisha were kidnapped while working in the cowshed at Kibbutz Holit, along with their father Youssef, 53, and older brother Hamza, 23.
The family lives in the Bedouin city of Rahat, in the Ziyadne neighborhood, named for their extensive family clan.
Wahid Ahoziil, a volunteer for the Center for the Missing and Captives in the Arab community, described the family as “simple people” who have worked for many years at local kibbutzim.
Liam Or, 18
Liam was captured along with his uncle Dror, 48, and his cousins, Noam, 17, and Alma, 13 from Kibbutz Be’eri.
Noam and Alma were released as part of the temporary truce on November 25.
Liam’s friend, Shai Hagai, another Be’eri resident, received a photo of Liam as he was being taken to Gaza.
Itay Regev, 18
Itay and his sister Maya, 21, were kidnapped from the Supernova music festival, a day after returning to Israel from abroad, where they had celebrated their mother’s birthday.
Maya was released on November 25 as part of the truce deal. She was shot on October 7, and she remains hospitalized after undergoing surgery.
The last time Itay, 18, and Maya, 21, Regev’s father spoke to his two older children was in the frantic early hours of the onslaught, when the two siblings were trying to escape Hamas gunmen at the desert rave.
A few hours later, a Hamas video surfaced on social media, showing the two siblings tied up on the back of a pickup truck.
