When the terrorist-stamped Hamas released three more hostages on Saturday, an American and a French citizen were freed, as well as the father of the two youngest hostages, who were the only children not released in November 2023.
The Bibas family has become a symbol of the hostages and are well-known names in Israel. Now, father Yarden is being released, while his wife Shiri and their two children Ariel and Kfir – who were 10 months and four years old, respectively, when they were kidnapped from the kibbutz Nir Oz – are still not being released.
Fears in Israel are that they are dead, since Hamas, according to the agreement, was supposed to release women and children first. Hamas has stated that the three died in an Israeli air raid on Gaza, which has not been confirmed.
Wearing orange clothes
But the family has not given up hope of seeing the entire family alive, they say in a statement, and during the week, Israelis have been urged to wear orange clothing, the same color as the boys' hair, to show support for the family.
The information we have received is not positive, says Jimmy Miller, cousin to Shiri Bibas, according to The Guardian.
The military is afraid of what condition they will be in when they are returned. They fear that the information they received a year ago is true (that the children are dead), but we won't know the truth until we see it with our own eyes.
Hamas says that 8 of the 23 hostages who have not yet been released or named are no longer alive, but does not specify who they are. Israel has, according to The Times of Israel, confirmed this.
90 prisoners released
The French-Israeli citizen who is being released, 54-year-old Ofer Calderon, was taken with two of his children in Nir Oz. These two – both teenagers – were released in the prisoner exchange in November 2023.
So did the wife of the third man who is now being released, 65-year-old American Keith Siegel.
In exchange for the three, Israel is releasing, according to the news agency AFP, 183 prisoners, at least nine of whom are serving life sentences.
Since Israel and Hamas agreed on a ceasefire, a total of 15 people have been released by Hamas, 10 Israelis and five Thais.
About 250 people were taken hostage in the October attack on Israel. Around 80 of them are believed to be in Gaza, but the Israeli military estimates that at least 34 of them are dead.
Corrected: An earlier version of the text contained an incorrect figure regarding the Hamas hostages.
Phase one began on January 19 and will last for six weeks. During that time, Palestinian Hamas and their allies will release 33 people being held hostage in the Gaza Strip.
In return, Israel will release a total of over 730 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, as well as over 1,100 who have been detained by the military in the Gaza Strip as part of the war.
Israel will make some initial military withdrawals from key areas in Gaza. Much more aid and supplies will be allowed into the million-strong population there.
Two more phases of the ceasefire are being prepared, but the details of them remain to be negotiated.
