Hamas leaves three fathers hostage again after 16 months

As part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas, three other Israeli hostages were released on Saturday. One of them is Yarden Bibas, whose German-Israeli wife and two small children were also deported by Islamists on October 7, 2023 in the Hamas robbery. Your fate is still uncertain. This is known about the three men:

Bibas was kidnapped in the Hamas attack on October 7 from his apartment in Kibbutz Nir Oz, separated from the rest of his family. Video images showed how he was kidnapped by armed men with a bloody head. Yarden Bibas’ mother -in -law Yossi and Margit Silberman were killed in the attack when their house was set on fire. His sons Kfir and Ariel – who were eight and a half months and four years old at the time of their kidnapping – and his wife Shiri, like him, were kidnapped. The children were the youngest of the kidnapped hostages by Hamas and their Islamist allies, the picture of the kidnapping of the little ones went around the world, they became a symbol of the cruelty of the Islamists in Israel. According to Hamas, the children and the woman were killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip in November 2023, and Israel never confirmed.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was concerned about the fate of German-Israel Shiri Silberman-Bibas and her two children at the weekend. “We fear for them,” he said. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) emphasized with a view to the still deported woman and the children, for Yarden Bibas “The Hamas terror continues in freedom”.

Most recently, speculation about the fate of the mother and the two sons had been re -sparked. On January 25th, the Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari said that Israel requested her return and was very concerned about her “fate”.

Before the Hamas robbery, Yarden Bibas and his wife had planned to leave the Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel because of the frequent rocket attacks from the nearby Gaza Strip. The family wanted to move to the Golan heights occupied by Israel.

Bibas is a welder by profession and, according to the forum of the hostage families, was known as a pleasure person who appreciated good food and had made a marriage proposal in a restaurant in Tuscany.

Kalderon, who, in addition to Israeli, also has French citizenship, was also kidnapped from the Kibbutz Nir Oz – together with his then twelve -old son Erez and his then 16 -year -old daughter Sahar. The two young people were released as part of the first ceasefire in the Gaza War in November 2023.

Kalderon is a carpenter and, according to the forum of the hostage families, enthusiastic mountain bike drivers. He already spent two birthdays in the captivity of the Islamists.

France President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday in online service X that he shared the “immense relief and joy” of the relatives after Kalderon had been released after 483 days of unimaginable hell “.

In addition to Israeli and French citizenship, Kalderon also has a Portuguese passport. He received this shortly after the kidnapping, according to Portuguese media in October 2023.

Read too: “Hunger, death and displacement-the bitter record of the Gaza War in numbers”

The US Israeli was kidnapped with his wife Aviva Siegel from her apartment in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Aviva was released during the first ceasefire in November 2023. She described the course of the attack to the AFP news agency: the kidnappers “just opened the door. We sat in the pajamas. They simply took us (…) in a very brutal way. They bumped into Keith and ribs to him broken.” The couple has four children and five grandchildren.

In a video published by Hamas on April 27, 2024, the occupational therapist Siegel can be seen how he breaks out into tears, hides his face and says that he is afraid.