Thousands of Israelis rally for Gaza hostage’s fifth birthday
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A gathering in Tel Aviv marking the fifth birthday of Ariel Bibas, who was taken hostage on Oct 7.
PHOTO: AFP
TEL AVIV – Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Aug 5 to mark the fifth birthday of Gaza hostage Ariel Bibas and call for the release of him and his family.
Ariel, his baby brother Kfir and their parents Yarden and Shiri were kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz near Gaza on Oct 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel.
Kfir Bibas, who would be one by now if he has survived, is the youngest of the 251 people taken hostage by militants that day.
The Palestinian Islamist movement said in November that the two boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Israel has yet to confirm if they are alive.
“It’s a hard day for us, and we hope that we can change this reality, the one where (the) two children are still captive in Gaza,” their grandfather Eli Bibas said at the march.
Some participants held a photo of Ariel bearing the words, “a deal now”, in reference to a Gaza ceasefire agreement that would secure the hostages’ release.
Others wore orange caps, reminiscent of Ariel’s hair colour.
“Be like Batman and bring them back,” Mr Israel Katorza, a popular comedian who is close to the Bibas family, told the crowd over a microphone. Family photos of Ariel show him dressed as the superhero Batman.
Images broadcast by Hamas in October of Ms Shiri Bibas holding her two red-headed boys became a symbol of Hamas’ unprecedented attack that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
Ariel and Kfir Bibas are the only two minors left among the 111 still captive in Gaza, including 39 the Israeli army says are dead.
The Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which groups relatives of some of those captured, said the Bibas family had “become a symbol of the inconceivable cruelty that occurred on Oct 7. But for us, you’re not a symbol – you’re a family we love.”
Their 34-year-old father Yarden Bibas was not being held with the rest of his family, according to hostages who were released in November during a brief truce.
The Oct 7 attack led to the death of at least 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 39,623 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which does not provide details on civilian and militant deaths. AFP