Israeli hostage’s family demand answers over fate of his wife and children

The family of an Israeli hostage freed over the weekend have made a plea for information over the fate of his wife and children.

Yarden Bibas, 34, was released on Saturday along with two other hostages being held by Hamas in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

His wife Shiri and two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were also kidnapped by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 attack.

Hamas claimed in November 2023 they had been killed in an Israeli air strike, without providing evidence. The Israeli military has not confirmed the report.

Shiri’s sister Dana Silberman-Sitton told reporters at the Sheba hospital in central Israel the family would “no longer accept uncertainty”.

“We demand answers. We demand them back,” she added, as she accused the state of “failing to protect” her family.

Shiri, 33, two-year-old Kfir and Ariel, five, were named along with Yarden on the list of 33 Israeli hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is to last six weeks.

However, last month the Israeli military’s chief spokesman said it was “extremely concerned” about their welfare.

Kfir was only nine months old when he was kidnapped, the youngest of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas.

“The state has been failing for almost 16 months to bring them home,” Ms Silberman-Sitton said.

“It’s the responsibility of the government and the state to Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, to Yarden, to me and our entire family, and to all the citizens of Israel,” she added.

Ofri Bibas Levy, Yarden’s sister, added: “My brother returned, but my sister in-law and nephews have not. Yarden asks about them and I have no answers for him.”

Gal Hirsch, the government’s hostage coordinator, said on Saturday “we have been searching for them for a long time” and demanding “information about their condition from the mediators”.

An Israeli government spokesman said on 27 January that eight of the remaining 26 hostages due to be released during the first phase of the ceasefire deal were dead, citing a list received from Hamas that matched with Israeli intelligence.

He said their families had been informed but did not name them.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog described Mr Bibas’s return as “simply heartbreaking”, saying his country remained “deeply concerned” about their fate.

Israeli-American Keith Siegel and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon were the other two hostages held by Hamas who were released on Saturday.

So far, the 13 Israeli hostages released since the start of the ceasefire have all been alive. Five Thai hostages have also been freed by Hamas, but not as part of the agreement with Israel.

Some 251 hostages were taken by Hamas when it attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people.

Israel responded with a 15-month military offensive that killed 47,460 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, and devastated the coastal enclave.