Welcoming hostages’ return, PM pledges to ‘achieve all war goals’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to “achieve all the goals of the war” following the Saturday release of hostages Ofer Calderon, Yarden Bibas and Keith Siegel, who were returned to Israel in exchange for 183 Palestinian security prisoners.

In a video statement, Netanyahu welcomed the hostages’ return to Israel and warned the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups that future releases must be carried out in the same orderly manner, after the chaos of Thursday’s release.

“Ofer, Yarden, Keith — how good it is to see you home! After the sights we all saw on Thursday, we demanded the safe departure of our hostages in the coming releases,” he said.

“As you saw today,” Netanyahu said, “this firm stance has proven itself. The message was conveyed, received and carried out. Israel expects that all the following rounds will also be carried out safely.”

Netanyahu said his thoughts remained with Yarden Bibas’s wife and children.

Bibas’s wife Shiri and sons Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2, who were all taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, are still held in Gaza, and Israel has said it has “grave concerns” for their fate. Hamas previously claimed that Shiri and the two boys were killed in captivity. Israel has not confirmed this claim.

They are set to be returned under the current ceasefire deal.

“We will continue to act with determination to return them to Israel and achieve all the goals of the war,” Netanyahu promised.

The official war goals in the south are the elimination of Hamas’s military and governing capabilities, the return of all the hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel. If an agreement is reached on a second phase of the deal, it would lead to a permanent ceasefire.

Following Yarden Bibas’s release, Israel demanded information on the fate of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir from the mediators who brokered the current ceasefire, but has not received a response so far.

“The Bibas family… has been living in constant fear for their lives for a long time… We continue to demand information about their condition from the mediators,” said Gal Hirsch, Israel’s hostage coordinator, in a statement.

President Isaac Herzog also welcomed the return of the hostages while expressing concern for the Bibas family.

“Yarden Bibas, Ofer Calderon and Keith Siegel are finally home. How we have worried and awaited their return,” Herzog tweeted.

“Yarden’s reunion with his family is simply heartbreaking. We all remain deeply concerned for the fate of our beloved Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas — as an entire nation we hold them in our hearts. The people of Israel stand by Yarden and the whole family, with great concern and in heartfelt prayer,” Herzog said.

Each of the returning hostages “deserves the time to rehabilitate and rebuild their lives, and every one of the hostages deserves to come home soon. We will not rest nor be silent until we return all our sisters and brothers from the hell of captivity in Gaza – until the last one,” Herzog added.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit party chairman Itamar Ben Gvir, both critics of the ceasefire deal, also welcomed the return of the hostages.

“Yarden, Keith and Ofer, welcome home! The entire people of Israel have been waiting for you and are so happy for your return,” tweeted Smotrich, citing the biblical verse “Your children shall return to their own borders.”

Smotrich has threatened to resign from the government if Israel does not resume fighting the Hamas terror group in Gaza after the 42-day first phase of the agreement.

Ben Gvir, a former national security minister who resigned from the government in protest of the deal, likewise welcomed the hostages back, stating that “we are happy and excited” about their return, “but at the same time, when we hear about the suffering our daughters and female hostages went through in captivity, we must not forget for a moment who the cruel enemy we are dealing with is.”

“Day by day, the message is clear and unambiguous to everyone: We must return to war and destroy our enemies,” Ben Gvir tweeted.

The far-right minister also congratulated Israel Prison Service Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi on his handling of the release of Palestinian security prisoners on Saturday. following a report that the International Committee of the Red Cross had protested their treatment.

According to Haaretz, the ICRC complained to the IPS that prisoners were being released with their hands bound behind their heads while wearing bracelets stating in Arabic: “The eternal nation does not forget. We will pursue our enemies and overcome them.”

In response to a Haaretz query, the IPS called the prisoners “the worst of Israel’s enemies,” adding that the prison service “will not compromise on the security of our people.”

“Congratulations to Chief Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi for his determined policy,” Ben Gvir said of the prisons chief he appointed, and who is close to him.

Following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Ben Gvir announced new restrictions on terror inmates in Israeli prisons, aimed at worsening their living conditions.

At a protest for the hostages outside Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv on Saturday, several relatives of hostages accused Netanyahu of leaving their loved ones “in hell” for a needlessly long time in favor of far-right political interests — a reference to Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s longtime opposition to the deal.

“This is a stain on [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s legacy that will not wash,” Yifat Zailer, a cousin of released captive Ofer Calderon, told the crowd.

Times of Israel staff and AFP contributed to this report.