For months, the world has watched in anguish as the fate of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, remained uncertain. Kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, their absence from the November hostage release only deepened fears.
Hamas later claimed they had died in an Israeli airstrike, showing a video of Shiri’s husband, Yarden, in captivity, grieving after allegedly being told of their deaths. Despite faint hopes that they were held by an allied group, the silence surrounding their fate grew more ominous.
On February 1, Yarden was freed, clinging to hope that his family was still alive. “My light is still there,” he said days later. But on Tuesday, Hamas announced that it would return the bodies of three hostages—Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir—on Thursday.
While Israel has informed the families of the last six known living hostages that they will be released Saturday, the Bibas family has received no official confirmation of their worst fears. For now, they remain in limbo, dreading what seems inevitable.
Their story, like so many others, shows the sick levels of depravity Hamas has perpetrated in this war.
