what we know about Kfir Bibas, the ten-month-old baby taken hostage on October 7

The armed wing of Hamas announced Wednesday the death of this baby, the youngest of the hostages held in Gaza. The Israeli army says it is “verifying” this information.

Since the start of the truce between Israel and Hamas, 60 hostages have gradually been released by the Palestinian terrorist movement. Women and children, but not Kfir Bibas, a ten-month-old Israeli baby kidnapped on October 7, who has become a symbol of the hostages still being held. On Wednesday, November 29, the Ezzedine al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, assured in a press release that Kfir Bibas, his brother and his mother had been killed in an Israeli bombardment. Information which has not been confirmed: the Israeli army declared on Wednesday the “check”. The Bibas family announced in a press release “wait for this information to be verified in the hope that it will be denied by the army.”

Kfir was kidnapped with his family on October 7

Kfir Bibas was kidnapped by Hamas in the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel during the October 7 attack. He was then 9 months old. Her 4-year-old brother Ariel, her father Yarden and her mother Shiri were kidnapped the same day. Video filmed during the kidnapping and posted on social media shows the mother, Shiri, apparently terrified, holding her children in a blanket, as Hamas terrorists surround them. Shiri’s parents, Margit and Yosi Silberman, also residents of Nir Oz, were killed in the attack. In other images from October 7, we see Kfir and Ariel’s father injured in the head, surrounded by a group of men who are taking him towards the Gaza Strip. The AP news agency noted that the family had since received no proof that Kfir was still alive.

With his brother and his mother, he became a symbol of the hostages

Kfir Bibas is the youngest of the hostages kidnapped on October 7. He has become one of the emblematic faces of the hostages held by Hamas, on social networks and on signs during demonstrations for the release of the hostages. A demonstration, bringing together relatives of the family, took place on Tuesday, November 28 in Tel Aviv, on the “hostages square”. “Hamas took them, and Hamas is required to bring them back now, said Ofri Bibas Levy, Kfir’s aunt, at the gathering. They are responsible for their health, and their freedom is directly in the hands of Hamas.” “It has never happened before that a baby was kidnapped at this age. Is little Kfir an enemy of Hamas?”was moved by Eylon Keshet, a cousin of Kfir’s father, quoted by AP.

Kfir was transferred to another terrorist group

According to an Israeli army spokesperson, Daniel Hagari, quoted by the American channel CNN, the Bibas family is no longer in the hands of Hamas. A representative of Israeli diplomacy pointed the finger at the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a movement classified as terrorist by the European Union, the United States and Israel. But nothing formally confirms that it is the PFLP. According to an Israeli army spokesperson in Arabic, Avichai Adraee, quoted by Times of Israelthe Bibas family was “transferred” by Hamas to “another Palestinian group” in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, without giving further details on the date of this transfer.

A controversy arose in France over a supposed proximity between the PFLP and La France insoumise. Some went so far as to urge LFI to use its connections to obtain a release. Originally, an initiative by LFI MP Ersilia Soudais who invited Mariam Abou Daqqa, Palestinian PFLP activist, for the screening of a film at the National Assembly on November 9. Wednesday on BFMTV, the party coordinator, Manuel Bompard, defended himself from any proximity: “We don’t know the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, we have never worked with them.” He declared that “the actions that this organization has committed are terrorist”.