In Israel, thousands gather for the 5th birthday of Ariel Bibas, still a hostage in Gaza

Among the hundred hostages still held in Gaza by Hamas, Ariel Bibas, 5, should have celebrated his birthday on Monday.

Nearly ten months after the October 7 attacks, thousands of people took part in a ceremony in Tel Aviv on Monday, August 5, to celebrate the birthday of Ariel Bibas, a 5-year-old boy who, along with his family, has become the symbol of the 111 people still held in the Gaza Strip. Hostages that many accuse Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting to sacrifice, rather than negotiate with Hamas.

On T-shirts, placards, flags, a little man dressed as Batman smiles. It’s Ariel Bibas’ birthday. He’s 5 years old. But Ariel is a hostage in Gaza. “It’s been months already, we were hoping so much to celebrate this” : on a platform, Ariel’s grandmother speaks.I miss you, she said again, you the first of my grandsons”, imagining the day Ariel comes back and asks him to play in the garden.

In the crowd is Nitzan. On October 7, when Ariel was kidnapped with her mother and her nine-month-old brother and taken with the other hostages to Gaza, Nitzan was pregnant. Since then Yonathan has been born. He is 8 months old and babbling in the stroller she holds in front of her. “It’s so sad, Nitzan is moved. I have a little boy, that could be us. I can’t stand this. You see him, you see his family so beautiful, and we don’t know where he is.”

“The government is doing nothing to bring them home. But they have to do it ! They can’t stay there. It’s going to be a year soon. !”

Nitzan, Tel Aviv resident

to franceinfo

“Why are they still in Gaza? ?”the crowd shouts. “Bibi, it’s because of you…”a man replies. Holding a placard, Limor Ardeshtel braves the heat : “We are not doing enough. We are sacrificing them, they are the ones left behind in this war.” Limor is there at every rally. She thanks the journalists for being there, so that the fate of the hostages is not overshadowed by the dizzying escalation of tensions. Everyone fears the reprisals promised by Hezbollah and Iran for the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. : “I think it was not the time to do something so radical. Because it has consequences. It was not the time.”

As the pounding of Gaza continues, and rockets fall on Israel every day, Limor believes “that we must stop everything, everything, and reach this agreement that Benjamin Netanyahu himself initiated. We must implement it and what will happen after, well, we will see later.” An agreement that Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right allies in the government coalition do not want, threatening to withdraw if it were concluded. In Gaza, Ariel, his brother and the other hostages are entering their 305th day of captivity.