Yarden Bibas to PM: ‘Bring my family back. Bring my friends back. Bring everyone home’
In first statement since release, Bibas thanks Israelis who fought for him and his family, says: ‘My light is still there, and as long as they’re there, everything here is dark’
Yarden Bibas, who was released from Gaza last Saturday under the hostage-ceasefire deal in Gaza, made his first public statements on Friday since his release.
“On October 7th, 2023, I was kidnapped from Israel. On February 1st, 2025, I returned to a different country. I knew that the people of Israel unite in times of disaster, but I never knew to what extent,” he wrote in a statement distributed by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Thanking everyone who had supported him and his family during his 485 days in captivity, he made a special mention of Israeli troops: “To the IDF soldiers, in one sentence — you are heroes, each and every one of you. Thank you.”
Bibas was kidnapped separately from his wife Shiri and young sons Ariel and Kfir, when Hamas terrorists raided their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, after he left their safe room hoping to distract the gunmen and save his family.
In November 2023, Hamas claimed that Shiri and the two boys had been killed in captivity. Israel has not confirmed the 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.
“Sadly, my family hasn’t returned to me yet. They are still there. My light is still there, and as long as they’re there, everything here is dark. Thanks to you, I was brought back — help me bring the light back to my life,” he said.
He specifically addressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “Bring my family back. Bring my friends back. Bring everyone home.”
On Monday, after Yarden’s release, his sister Ofri said at a press conference: “It all feels very fragile. My brother returned, but my sister-in-law and nephews have not. Yarden asks about them and I have no answers for him.”
She added: “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 Yarden Bibas’s mistreatment in Hamas captivity, which included mind games about 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.
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.
