Relative of 10-month-old hostage distraught over family’s continued detainment
Aunt of Israeli hostages Yifat Zailer pleads for the release of her family, including a 10-month-old baby boy.
The terrorist group Hamas transferred custody of a 10-month-old Israeli hostage and his family to another terrorist group in southern Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces said Tuesday.
The IDF's Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee announced the transfer late Monday night. The family consists of the infant, Kfir; his 4-year-old brother Ariel, and their parents, Yarden, 34, and Shiri, 32. The IDF did not specify precisely which organization they have been transferred to.
"Children and babies under the age of one who have not seen the light of day for more than fifty days are being held captive by Hamas, [who] treats some of them like loot and in some places has transferred them to other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip," Adraee wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Ofri Bibas Levy, whose brother Yarden (34) was taken hostage with his wife Shiri (32) and 2 children Kfir (10 months) and Ariel (4), holds with her friend Tal Ulus pictures of them during an interview with Reuters, as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Geneva, Switzerland, November 13, 2023. (REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo)
"For example, the Bibas family, the two red-haired children ‘The Reds,’ who were kidnapped from their home in Nir Oz by a member of the Hamas terrorist organization (pictured) and are being held in the Khan Yunis area by one of the Palestinian factions."
The Bibas family was kidnapped in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when murderous Hamas terrorists rampaged through the southern part of the country and killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their homes and at a music festival. Some 240 Israelis and foreign nationals were captured by the terrorists and taken back to Gaza as hostages.
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Ofri Bibas Levy wears a shirt with her brother, sister-in-law and their two children, age 4 and 10 months held captive in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Video of the incident showed a terrified Shiri clutching the children in a blanket as they were bundled into captivity. Another clip showed Yarden with a head injury from hammer blows, Ofri Bibas, Yarden's sister, said.
She told reporters the family was not to be included in the expected release of 10 hostages on Tuesday. Relatives of repatriated hostages have been informed in advance by authorities.
Bibas said Hamas' psychological warfare is "working really well because the last four days [since the start of the truce] have been a big nightmare," according to the Times of Israel.
"I hope they’re not holding them as a trophy," she added.
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David Barr and Ofri Bibas Levy attend a press conference of family members of British-Israeli kidnap victims, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, at the Israeli Embassy in London, Britain October 24, 2023. (Reuters/Hannah McKay)
Hamas has released 50 Israeli hostages, as well as 19 foreign nationals, since Friday as part of a cease-fire agreement reached with Israel and mediated by Egypt and Qatar. Israel has freed 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange and has increased humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged since the war started on Oct. 7.
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An estimated 170 people remain in Hamas custody in Gaza, with their locations unknown.
"The understanding that we will not, for now, get the hug we had so hoped for leaves us speechless," the Bibas' extended family said in a statement to the media.
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and Reuters contributed to this report.