At 10-months-old, Kfir Bibas has now spent more than a fifth of his young life in captivity, his doe-eyed face and bright red hair a vivid symbol of the pain and suffering endured by Israel\u2019s hostage families. <\/p>\n
More than 50 days since his abduction by Hamas militants from their home in southern Israel, Kfir\u2019s family say they are no closer to knowing whether <\/strong>he is safe \u2013 or even alive. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are not sure if he can make it. Every day that he is staying there is a real, real danger to his life.\u201d <\/p>\n Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel, their mother, Shiri, and presumably their father Yarden were all kidnapped from Nir Oz, an Israeli kibbutz that was devastated when it came under attack by Hamas militants on October 7. The attackers murdered more than a quarter of the community and seized scores of <\/strong>others, as they fired at people\u2019s homes, looted and destroyed what they could. <\/p>\n Some 1,200 people, most civilians, were slain by Hamas across southern Israel that day \u2013 the largest terror attack on Israel since the country\u2019s founding in 1948. <\/p>\n A video of the Bibas family\u2019s abduction became one of the early striking moments of that day, as a terrified Shiri clung tightly to her children, with Ariel still sucking his pacifier. The children do not cry, nor make a sound as Hamas militants surround their shaken mother, a blanket wrapped around her body.\u00a0Their grandparents were killed in the attack, Keshet added. <\/p>\n The boys\u2019 father was hit by a hammer, his sister has said,\u00a0with no further information available on his current condition or whereabouts. Yarden\u2019s cousin, Keshet, has said the family believes Yarden was separated from his wife and children, based on videos that they have seen. <\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense that anyone can let this keep going,\u201d Keshet said. \u201cIt\u2019s inhumane. It\u2019s so scary.\u201d <\/p>\n Hamas is believed to have held more than 200 hostages in Gaza prior to\u00a0the releases negotiated with Israel.\u00a0Under the\u00a0breakthrough truce agreement, groups of\u00a0Israeli citizens and other nationals \u2013 mostly women and children, in line with the terms of the agreement\ufeff \u2013\u00a0have been\u00a0freed every day since last Friday. <\/p>\n More than 14,800 Palestinians, including 6,000 children,\u00a0have since been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive in response to the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, according to figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank, which draws its data from Hamas-run health authorities in the\u00a0Gaza\u00a0Strip. <\/p>\n As part of the truce deal Israel has released\u00a0Palestinian women and children\u00a0detainees from its prisons, many of whom have never been charged or sentenced. <\/p>\n The initial four-day truce was\u00a0extended\u00a0by an additional two days on Monday, as\u00a0stories began to trickle out\u00a0from the families of freed hostages, giving the first insights into what life had been like in captivity. <\/p>\n On Monday, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that the Bibas family is\u00a0not currently held hostage by Hamas, which further complicates release efforts. <\/p>\n While Hamas runs Gaza, other militant groups operate there including organizations such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad. <\/p>\n Kfir, Ariel and Shira\u2019s names are yet to appear on a list of hostages expected to be freed. An estimated eight children are <\/strong>still being held by Hamas, and their faces have galvanized a mourning nation clamoring for their return. <\/p>\n More than 100 people gathered in Tel Aviv on Tuesday to release orange balloons into the sky to honor the two Bibas boys and their mother, agency pictures showed. <\/p>\n The sheer youth of Kfir has captured Israeli attention and anguish. The baby boy was still being bottle-fed and wasn\u2019t at a stage where he was eating solid food when he was taken. <\/p>\n \u201cHe needs baby formula,\u201d Keshet said through tears, adding the family is also extremely worried about Ariel\u2019s health. <\/p>\n \u201cAriel is a fragile child and has several medical conditions,\u201d he said, explaining that the four-year-old has a skin condition which needs treatment. \u201cHe is such a lively child, and he really loves cars and tractors,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n For Shiri\u2019s cousin, Yifat Zailer, the days and nights have been \u201cemotional and stressful.\u201d <\/p>\n Every day, Zailer hopes to see her family\u2019s names on the list of hostages to be released. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a 10-month-old baby that is still being held captive. His life is at risk. No child should be pawned or held as leverage,\u201d she said, her face gaunt and eyes sullen. <\/p>\n \u201cHopefully this will be over soon, and we can somehow go on to repair our shattered \u2013 completely shattered \u2013 life here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n At 10-months-old, Kfir Bibas has now spent more than a fifth of his young life in captivity, his doe-eyed face and bright red hair a vivid symbol of the pain and suffering endured by Israel\u2019s hostage families. More than 50 days since his abduction by Hamas militants from their home in southern Israel, Kfir\u2019s family <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}