Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog reacted Monday to the release of surveillance video showing the abduction of Shiri Bibas and her young children on October 7 by reiterating their call the release of all Israeli hostages.
The Bibas and her small children — Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 1 — were abducted and are believed to be alive, though Hamas claimed they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. Hamas also released a hostage video of Yarden Bibas, the husband and father of the family.
The redheaded mother-and-children trio have become iconic symbols of the more than 130 Israeli hostages still in captivity. Kfir was an infant when kidnapped and turned one year old in captivity.
A picture of Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage to be kidnapped by Hamas militants on the October 7 attack together with his mother and brother, is held in front of balloons as Israelis attend his first birthday celebration in Tel Aviv on January 18, 2024. Kfir Bibas was born on January 18 and — if still alive — would be celebrating his first birthday. In November, Hamas broadcast a video announcing the death of the baby, his brother and mother, but there has been no confirmation from Israeli officials, and relatives are still clinging to the hope that they are not dead. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released the footage of the abduction, which had been live-streamed by Hamas during its October 7 attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, the devastated community near Gaza where a quarter of the residents were murdered or abducted.
The new footage was recovered from a camera in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis, where the IDF has been fighting Hamas.
Breitbart News visited the Bibas family home in Nir Oz earlier this month, ahead of a visit by Argentinian President Javier Milei.
Home of the Bibas family, Argentinian-Israelis who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel, February 8, 2024 (Joel Pollak / Breitbart News)
Kibbutz Nir Oz issued a statement responding to the new video:
The video is further evidence that Shiri Bibas and her young children Ariel and Kfir, together with their husband and father Yarden, were kidnapped alive from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The continued captivity of Kfir Bibas by Hamas, the youngest of all captives, reminds us that we are all hostage until the return of all the hostages. We call on the state of Israel to act immediately to return them home safely.
Netanyahu responded with a recorded video and statement in both Hebrew and English (via Government Press Office):
[Hebrew]
The video in which we see the Bibas family in Gaza is heart wrenching and reminds us who we are dealing with – the brutal kidnappers of babies.
We will settle accounts with them.
And to the world I say:
[English]
We will bring these kidnappers of babies and mothers to justice.
They won’t get away with it.
President Herzog tweeted the video and added a statement:
One word. Barbarity.
Hamas terrorists carry away the Bibas family into captivity.
Kfir Bibas, just a year old, is the youngest hostage in the world.
The whole world must demand and work to #BringThemHomeNow.
IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari added a rebuke to “[T]hose who have the audacity to question to operate in Gaza but don’t have the basic decency and humanity to demand that Hamas release our hostages, first of all.”
Negotiations over a further release of hostages have broken down because Hamas is demanding that Israel end the war and withdraw from Gaza, effectively accepting defeat. Israel has given Hamas until March 10 — the start of Ramadan — to release the hostages or face destruction.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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