Israeli army says it “fears for the life” of baby hostage in Gaza and his family

Shiri Bibas and her two children appear surreptitiously in a video shot in Khan Younes on October 7, according to the IDF, which released the document. A military group linked to Hamas says they have since been killed in a bombing. But this information has not been confirmed.

Where are the Bibas family today, a mother and two children including an infant, captured on October 7 by Hamas commandos? “We fear for their lives”, declared the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Daniel Hagari, Monday February 19, after a screening. The IDF released images purporting to show Shiri Bibas, from behind and surrounded by seven armed men in the Gaza Strip, on the day of her capture.

These images, again according to the Israeli army, were taken by a street camera in Khan Younes, in the south of the Palestinian enclave, a few kilometers from the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz where they were kidnapped. Hamas had already filmed footage of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel, 4 months, and Kfir, 9 months, during its attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz. But until now, no document had shown this mother and her children in the Gaza Strip.

The Islamist movement announced in November the death of the baby, his brother and his mother, allegedly killed by an Israeli bombing. But Israeli authorities have never confirmed this information.

Israel denounces “cruel baby kidnappers”

The Bibas family called in a statement Monday “the decision-makers, in Israel and around the world, involved in the negotiations [pour leur libération] to bring them home now”. She adds in this text: “Kidnapping children is a crime against humanity and a war crime, Ariel and Kfir are the victims of a monstrous evil”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that these images “remind us who we are dealing with, cruel baby kidnappers”.

In a statement released Monday evening in response to the army’s message, a Hamas-allied military group reiterated that the mother and two children had been killed by “an Israeli bombing”after having been “detained for twenty days”. He claims that the Israeli government is “responsible for the death of [ces trois membres de] the Bibas family”and accuses Benjamin Netanyahu of “to seek to get rid of” other hostages “by deliberately targeting them.”

Hamas released a video of the children’s father, Yarden Bibas, also kidnapped on October 7, after announcing the death of the rest of the family. Nir Oz was the scene of one of the bloodiest attacks carried out from the Gaza Strip by Hamas, which left more than 1,160 dead on the Israeli side, mainly civilians, according to an AFP count from official Israeli figures.