If Kfir Bibas were still alive, January 18 would have been one year old.
Jerusalem:
The Israeli military released new images on Monday and expressed concern about a mother and her two boys, including the youngest baby being held hostage by Hamas agents.
Hamas announced in November that all three people were killed in Israeli bombings, but Israeli authorities have not confirmed this claim.
Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said they were “concerned for the welfare” of Shiri Bibas, who was seen on street cameras in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis. Surrounded by seven armed men.
đź”´On October 7, video of Shiri Bibas, her 4-year-old child and 9-month-old baby wrapped in sheets, being escorted by terrorist kidnappers to eastern Khan Younis: pic.twitter.com/GPOCxYts6Q
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 19, 2024
Hagari said in a televised briefing that Kofir Bibas was the youngest Israeli hostage who was “stolen from his crib” in the neighborhood of Nir Oz when he was less than nine months old and he His younger brother Ariel is only four years old.
If Kfir Bibas were still alive, January 18 would have been one year old.
In a statement on Monday, other members of the Bibas family described the images as “unbearable and inhumane” and called the child abduction “a crime against humanity and a war crime.”
“Ariel and the lion cubs are victims of a horrific evil. Our entire family and all of us are hostages,” they added.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that “those who kidnapped babies and mothers” would be brought to justice.
Hamas has previously shown a video of the boy’s father, Yarden Bibas, who was also captured in an attack by Hamas militants on October 7 that sparked the war with Israel .
On October 7, some of the bloodiest attacks took place in Neer Oz in southern Israel, killing 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli data.
Israel responded by vowing to “destroy” Hamas and carried out relentless bombings and ground incursions that killed more than 29,000 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
More than 250 people were taken hostage, more than 75 of them from Neil Oz. According to Israel, 130 hostages remain in Gaza, but 30 are believed to have died.
The image of a frightened Shiri Bibas, with two children in her arms, photographed by Hamas on October 7, became a typical image of the Israeli hostage crisis.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
