- This is a breaking news story, more to come
Hamas has claimed that Israel is refusing to take back the bodies of the Bibas family, including 10-month-old Kfir.
The terror group said in a statement, along with a heartbreaking video of Father Yarden Bibas shared on its Telegram channel: ‘The resistance offered to hand over the three bodies, but the occupation government refused to receive them and is still maneuvering and negotiation. ‘
Yarden, 34, was seen distraught and crying as he said: ‘Bibi (Netanyahu) your airstrike has taken away my beloved family, now do what you can to bring them home so they can be buried at home.
“I beg you, take me, my wife and my children back home. Please, I beg you.”
MailOnline will not publish the video.
With his red hair and toothless smile, Kfir’s (pictured) harrowing ordeal has become for many a symbol of the brutality of the Hamas attack on October 7.
Yarden, 34, (pictured, centre) was seen distraught and crying as he said: ‘Bibi (Netanyahu) your airstrike has taken away my beloved family, now do what you can to bring them home so they can be buried at home’
The world watched in horror as images emerged on October 7 of Hamas terrorists dragging Shiri and her young family from their home on the Nir Oz kibbutz.
The heartbreaking message comes after Hamas claimed yesterday that 10-month-old Kfir, four-year-old Ariel and their mother Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, were killed in an Israeli bombing before Friday’s ceasefire was announced.
The claim has not yet been independently verified and IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said in response to Yarden’s video: “Hamas’ claims about the Bibas family are still not verified, the published documentation is psychological terrorism.”
The world watched in horror as footage emerged on October 7 of Hamas terrorists dragging Shiri and her young family from their home on the Nir Oz Kibbutz to a waiting motorcycle.
Video showed the sobbing mother holding Kfir and Ariel as they were kidnapped, as shocked neighbors shouted: “She has a baby.”
With his red hair and toothless smile, Kfir’s harrowing ordeal has become for many a symbol of the brutality of the Hamas attack on October 7, in which the terrorists slaughtered 1,200 Israelis in their homes or as they tried to flee a music festival.
Shiri (pictured) is pictured playing with her baby Kfir. The pair were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists, who now claim – without providing evidence – that they were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Ariel Bibas (pictured) is pictured here playing with bubbles. He was captured by Hamas terrorists on October 7
Hamas’ armed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, claimed, without providing evidence, that Kfir, his mother Shiri Silberman-Bibas, 30, and four-year-old brother Ariel, had been killed in an Israeli bombing before the ceasefire was announced.
Yossi Schneider – Shiri’s cousin – told Israeli media: ‘It looks like our personal Schindler’s list. Every day we wait to see who comes back and who doesn’t. This is like the list that chooses who will live and who will die.”
He wondered why Hamas had taken the 10-month-old baby and the 4-year-old child in the first place, and wondered what value they had as a “negotiating asset.”
‘What exactly were the Hamas terrorists thinking when they kidnapped them? What exactly were they afraid of? What did they think Kfir could do to them?
‘They pass him from hand to hand like an animal. I do not understand.’
“There is no precedent for something like this, for a baby who was kidnapped when he was nine months old,” Eylon Keshet, the cousin of Kfir’s father, told reporters on Tuesday. ‘Is baby Kfir the enemy of Hamas?’
More to follow.