Hamas published three other hostages on Saturday as part of its ceasefire agreement with Israel, in a rapid process which was contrasting with a chaotic transfer earlier this week.
The hostage outing is part of a 42-day ceasefire agreement which entered into force last month, on a break between Israel and Hamas. Hamas has agreed to gradually release 33 of the nearly 100 hostages in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and a partial Israeli withdrawal.
Here is a more in -depth examination of the Israelis released on Saturday.
Bibas Yarden
For many Israelis, the removal of Mr. Bibas and his family became emblematic of the cruelty of the attack led by Hamas in 2023 against Israel. Activists also removed his wife, Shiri, and their two children, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, who was 9 months old at the time, from their home to Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Hamas later said that Ms. Bibas and the two children were killed in an Israeli air strike. Israeli officials have not publicly confirmed the complaint, but warned that they were seriously concerned about their fate.
A video of Ms. Bibas traveled the Kibbutz by a Hamas activist with her two children on October 7, 2023, captured his terror. They were imprisoned separately from Mr. Bibas. In November 2023, Hamas published a video showing that it was informed that they died in captivity.
The Bibas family had trouble not knowing if their loved ones are alive. The last time one of them has received proof of life for Mr. Bibas was when images that showed him bleeding from the head circulated online.
Ofri Bibas-Levy, Mr. Bibas’s sister who recommended a cease-fire and hostage contract, said that she was grateful for media attention and world leaders. But the haunting images of Shiri and his children transformed them into symbols of the crisis and generated a certain degree of public fascination for their fate which sometimes made the clicking, she said.
“People attach their names to any new story that appears, even if it is made up,” she said during a rally of hostage parents near the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in Jerusalem To renew calls to an urgent agreement to bring them home. “And whenever it happens, it shakes our whole world.”
OFER KALDERON
Mr. Kalderon, a French Israel Who was 52 at the time of the Hamas attack, was captured with two of his four children, Erez and Sahar, 12 and 16 years old at the time. They had fled their refuge to Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel in neighboring fields, according to Israeli media. The children were released in the ceasefire agreement in November 2023.
In October 2024, more than a year after Mr. Kalderon was taken hostage, his cousin Ifat Kalderon was part of a group of hostage parents who published a strongly written television statement to Mr. Netanyahu. They called on the Prime Minister to seize the moment after the murder of the head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the October 7 attack, to conclude a hostage and Cessor agreement.
“We all understand that there is a close opportunity window-and perhaps the last-to save lives,” she said. The following month, his family marked his Second anniversary in captivity.
Keith Siegel
Mr. Siegel, an American Israeli, was 64 When it was caught in captivity With his wife, Aviva Siegel, from their home to Kfar Azza and drives, along With a neighbor and his two childrenIn Gaza in their own car, according to Israeli media. He was raised in North Carolina and moved to Israel in adulthood.
Ms. Siegel was released in late November 2023 in the first cease-fire contract. No word was heard of Mr. Siegel until Hamas has published a video of him and another hostage in April of last year.
Ms. Siegel told New York Times in May that she and her husband had been moved more than a dozen times and were kept in apartments and tunnels. She said they have often refused food and water for many hours. She said her kidnappers abused and humiliated the hostages and did not allow them to speak.
Ms. Siegel said that she often thought about her last conversation with her husband before she was released: “I asked Keith to be strong for me, and I said:” I will be strong for you – And that’s what keeps me alive. “”
