Family members will mark the first birthday of the youngest Israeli Kfir Bibas held by Hamas in Gaza, in a grim ceremony in Tel Aviv on Thursday.
The red-haired infant was eight months old when the Palestinian gunmen stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7 as part of a killing spree in southern Israel. Bibas, who has been in captivity for a quarter of his life, has become both a symbol of the helplessness and anger in Israel over the dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.
Today, Kfir Bibas marks his first birthday as a hostage in Gaza.Kfir has spent almost a third of his life in captivity by Hamas.
Help us raise awareness for Kfir and for all of the hostages by posting his picture and including the #KfirOneYear.
Let’s get #KfirOneYear… pic.twitter.com/AYSJh64s33
— David Saranga (@DavidSaranga) January 18, 2024
On Tuesday, his family gathered at the Bibas’ home in Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza, blowing up orange balloons to hang on the walls to cover bullet holes and spatters of blood, and filling his nursery school classroom with birthday decorations. “It’s celebrating for someone who isn’t here,” Yossi Schneider, a cousin of Kfir’s mother, Shiri, told Israel’s Channel 12 TV. “He’s supposed to be out here on the grass of the kibbutz, with balloons on the trees, with family and high-fives and presents and love and hugs, and none of those things will be there.”
Hamas has said that Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel and their mother Shiri were killed in the Israeli offensive that ensued, while their father, Yarden, survived. But in the absence of Israeli corroboration, relatives and friends back home have refused to let hope die for the whole family’s safe recovery. “We’re marking a birthday to a kid who’s not here. We make him a cake, we put balloons, pictures, and blessings and everything and he’s not here,” Shnaider told Reuters. “It’s crazy.”
Israel recovered around half of the hostages in a November truce. However, 131 hostages remain in captivity. On Monday, Hamas aired a video purporting to show the bodies of two other hostages who it said were killed in an Israeli strike. Israel disputed the Hamas account in the video it deemed “psychological torture”. Meanwhile, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been trying to come up with a new truce that might free some more hostages.
(With agency inputs)
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