Hamas set to free Israeli father in Gaza hostage release – amid grave concerns for his wife and children
The next three Israelis to be released from Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, including the father of the youngest hostages taken and a dual US national.
A spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing said that Yarden Bibas, 35, Keith Siegel, 65, and Ofer Kalderon, 54, will be released in the next exchange, expected this weekend.
Ninety Palestinian prisoners, including nine serving life sentences and 81 serving long-term sentences, are to be released in return, Hamas’ prisoner information office said.
Under the ceasefire deal that halted more than 15 months of war, 33 hostages held by the Palestinian militants in Gaza are to be freed in the first six weeks of the truce in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been serving life sentences in Israel. Fifteen hostages, including the five Thai workers, and 400 prisoners have so far been exchanged.
The war was triggered by an attack by Hamas inside Israel on 7 October 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people were taken captive. Israel’s retaliatory offensive inside Gaza has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry, and laid waste to the enclave of 2.3 million people, who face severe shortages of medicine, fuel and food.
Mr Bibas is the father of baby Kfir, only nine months old when he was kidnapped on 7 October, and Ariel, who was four at the time of the cross-border attack. Mr Bibas’ wife, Shiri, the mother of the two children, was also taken at the same time.
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir remain unaccounted for amid “grave concerns” over their wellbeing, with the likely release of Mr Bibas marking a painful moment for the large numbers of Israelis and other supporters around the world who have long campaigned for the Bibas family’s release.
Video of Shiri holding on to her children as she was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen from the Nir Oz kibbutz became an enduring image of the Hamas attack.
Under the latest ceasefire agreement, living women and children were supposed to be freed first, with Ariel and Kfir were the only children being held who were not released in a previous week-long truce in November 2023. Hamas has claimed that Shiri and the two children were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the conflict. Israel has not confirmed that claim, but last week the military said there were “grave concerns” about what has happened to them.
Relatives of the Bibas family said in a statement: “We said then, and we say now: we hold on to hope and continue waiting for their return. We await clarity regarding their condition.”
The second hostage to be released this weekend, Israeli-American Keith Siegel, who was taken hostage with his wife Aviva, was seen in a video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange in November 2023.
Ofer Kalderon’s two children Erez and Sahar, abducted alongside him, were also released in the first exchange.
This weekend’s exchange will be the fourth iteration of the tentative peace deal between Israel and Hamas.
On Thursday, Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages in Gaza while Israel freed 110 Palestinian prisoners.
