A woman kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack in Israel gave birth in Gaza, says the wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a letter released Wednesday by the latter’s services.
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“One of the women who was kidnapped by Hamas was pregnant. She gave birth to her baby in captivity,” Sara Netanyahu wrote in a letter in English to US first lady Jill Biden.
The Prime Minister’s wife asks him in this letter to act “for the release of the Israeli hostages.”
Israel estimates that 239 people were kidnapped during the October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement, which left around 1,200 dead, mainly civilians.
Israeli authorities have not released the identities or other details of the hostages.
In her letter, Ms. Netanyahu mentions the number of 32 children detained, including a ten-month-old baby.
The Hostage Families Forum identified this baby, Kfir Bibas, an infant aged nine months at the time of his kidnapping in Kibbutz Nir Oz with his brother Ariel (4 years old), and his parents Yarden and Shiri.
“We need to speak on behalf of these children. We must call for their immediate release and the other hostages,” writes Sara Netanyahu.
The prime minister’s office announced that Ms. Netanyahu had also written to several other world leaders’ wives.
Qatar is currently conducting mediation to try to obtain the release of hostages in exchange for a truce and the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
American President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he believed in the possibility of an agreement on which Israeli officials are speaking cautiously, recalling that the objective of the war is to “annihilate” Hamas and free all the hostages.