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Israeli Hostage’s Release Brings Some Relief for Family but Fate of Wife, Children Unknown
Released Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas, who was seized during the deadly October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, embraces loved ones in an unknown location, in this screengrab from a handout video obtained by Reuters on February 1, 2025. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
The family of Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas expressed relief on Saturday after he was released along with two other hostages by Hamas but said that the family’s home remained incomplete.
Yarden, his wife, Shiri and children Ariel, now aged 5, and Kfir, now 2, were seized from their home near Gaza, among the roughly 250 people abducted by Palestinian terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack and taken into the coastal enclave.
Shiri and the children were not among those released.
Baby Kfir was only nine-months-old when he was kidnapped. Footage of the 2023 assault showed a terrified Shiri, holding her two children tightly, being taken away by militants.
“A quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months. There are no words to describe the relief of holding Yarden in our hands, embracing him, and hearing his voice,” the Bibas family said in statement.
“Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete.”
Footage released by the Israeli army showed Yarden at a military facility on Saturday reuniting with his father and sister and embracing them both.
Israeli-American Keith Siegel and Israeli-French Ofer Calderon were also released. Israel also freed 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees who had been held in Israeli jails.
Hamas said in late 2023 that Shiri and the children had been killed by Israeli bombardments on Gaza, part of the massive military response to the October 2023 attack.
Hamas is releasing hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention as part of a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
Since Jan. 13, Israeli hostages, including dual nationals, and five Thais have been freed. Another 20 Israeli hostages are to be released in the initial stage of the truce. Hamas has said eight of those are dead.
More than 100 hostages were freed in a week-long 2023 truce.
Towards the end of that truce Hamas put out a brief video purportedly showing Yarden Bibas being told that his wife and children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Israeli officials have expressed concern over the fate of Shiri and the children but has not said they had been killed.
“We continue with hope and the call for the return of Shiri, the children, and all the hostages. Please continue to make their voices heard and emphasize the urgency of their return,” the family said on Saturday.
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Egypt’s Sisi, Trump Discuss Gaza Ceasefire; No Mention of Palestinian Transfer in Statement
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, June 10, 2024. Photo: Amr Nabil/Pool via REUTERS
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and US President Donald Trump agreed on the need to consolidate the Gaza ceasefire deal in a phone call on Saturday, the Egyptian presidency said, but it was unclear if they discussed Trump’s call for the transfer of Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan.
The presidency said in a statement they had a positive dialogue which stressed the importance of fully implementing the first and second phases of the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and the need to step up humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza.
However, the statement did not mention if they discussed Trump’s statement last week that Egypt and Jordan should take in Palestinians from Gaza following 15 months of Israeli bombardments that have left most of its 2.3 million people homeless.
Critics have called his suggestion tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
Sisi rejected the idea on Wednesday, describing it as an “act of injustice.” However, on Thursday Trump reiterated his call, saying that “we do a lot for them, and they are going to do it,” in an apparent reference to US aid to both Egypt and Jordan.
Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Saturday also rejected a transfer of Palestinians from their land, saying such a move would threaten regional stability, spread conflict and undermine prospects for peace.
In their call, Sisi and Trump also expressed their keenness to achieve peace and stability in the region, the Egyptian presidency statement said.
Sisi invited Trump to visit Egypt as soon as possible to discuss problems in the Middle East, the statement added. The two presidents also discussed the need to strengthen their economic and investment ties, it said.
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Netanyahu to Depart Sunday for US to Meet with Trump
US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talk in the midst of a joint news conference in the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 28, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart on Sunday for the United States to meet with President Donald Trump, Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday.
Netanyahu has been invited to visit Trump at the White House on Tuesday and they will discuss the situation in Gaza, hostages held by Hamas, and the confrontation with Iran and its regional allies, a statement from his office said.
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Israeli Hostages, Palestinian Prisoners Released in Latest Gaza Exchange
Ofer Kalderon embraces his partner, Ramat Gan, Israel, February 1, 2025. Photo: Maayan Toaf/GPO/Handout via REUTERS
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages on Saturday, and dozens of Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released in exchange, in the latest stage of a truce aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli dual national, and Yarden Bibas were handed over to Red Cross officials in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before being transferred to Israel. Israeli-American Keith Siegel was separately handed over at the Gaza City seaport.
Hours later, 183 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released in the exchange. Among them, 150 arrived in Gaza while 32 got off a bus in Ramallah in the West Bank, where they were greeted by large crowds. One freed prisoner will be exiled to Egypt, according to the Hamas prisoners’ media office.
“I feel joy despite the journey of pain and hardship that we lived,” said Ali Al-Barghouti, who was serving two life sentences in an Israeli jail.
“The life sentence was broken and the occupation will one day be broken,” added Barghouti, as the crowd around him in Ramallah chanted “Allah Akbar (God is the most great).”
At the newly reopened Rafah crossing on the southern border, children suffering from cancer and heart conditions were among the first Palestinian patients to be allowed to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Egypt.
Mohammad Zaqout, a senior official in Gaza’s health ministry, however, criticized the limited number of patients allowed to travel for treatment, saying that around 18,000 people needed better healthcare.
In Israel, crowds gathered at the location in Tel Aviv known as Hostage Square to watch the release in the morning of the Israeli hostages on giant outdoor screens, mixing cheers and applause with tears as the three men appeared.
Kalderon, whose two children Erez and Sahar were released in the first hostage exchange in November 2023, and Bibas both briefly mounted a stage in Khan Younis, in front of a poster of Hamas figures including Mohammad Deif, the former military commander whose death was confirmed by Hamas this week, before being handed over to the Red Cross officials.
“Ofer Kalderon is free! We share the immense relief and joy of his loved ones after 483 days of unimaginable hell,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement.
Saturday’s handover saw none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages from a surging crowd in Gaza.
But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place in a sign of their re-established dominance in Gaza despite the heavy losses suffered in the war.
NEGOTIATIONS ON RELEASE OF REMAINING HOSTAGES
The total number of hostages freed so far is 18, including five Thais who were part of an unscheduled release on Thursday.
After Saturday’s exchange, Israel will have released 583 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including terrorists serving life sentences for deadly attacks as well as some detained during the war but not charged.
As the fighting has abated, diplomatic efforts to build a wider settlement have stepped up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Donald Trump on Tuesday with the ceasefire in Gaza, and a possible normalization of relations with Saudi Arabia as part of a postwar deal likely to be a focus.
During the first phase of the ceasefire, 33 children, women and older male hostages as well as sick and injured, were due to be released, with more than 60 men of military age left for a second phase which must still be worked out.
Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in a second phase of the deal, which is intended to lead to a final end of the war in Gaza.
The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, has mostly remained intact despite incidents that have led both sides to accuse the other of violating the deal.
Netanyahu’s government, which has hardliners who opposed the ceasefire deal, and Hamas say they are committed to reaching an agreement in the second phase.
But prospects for a durable settlement remain unclear. The war started with a Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, and saw more than 250 taken as hostages. Gaza is in ruins and a deep legacy of bitterness and mistrust remains.
Israeli leaders continue to insist that Hamas cannot remain in Gaza, but the terror group has taken every opportunity to demonstrate the control it continues to exert despite the loss of much of its former leadership and thousands of fighters during the war.
The post Israeli Hostages, Palestinian Prisoners Released in Latest Gaza Exchange first appeared on Algemeiner.com.