Houthis claim another attack on US ship near Yemen – DW – 01/19/2024

Kfir Bibas, Hamas’s youngest hostage, celebrates one year in captivity this January 18 after being kidnapped. israel , on October 7, in Kibbutz Nir Oz with his parents, Yarden and Shiri, and his 4-year-old brother, Ariel. They are all still detained Gaza Strip There is no evidence whether they are alive or dead.

Kfir, who was abducted before he was nine months old, and his brother Ariel, are the only abducted children still within the enclave, as of October 7, 104 days after the war, when Hamas carried out a brutal attack on Israeli soil that killed more than 1,200 people and injured more than 240 hostages,

“This is a lifetime for a child,” Shiri’s cousin and Bibas family spokesman Yossi Schneider said in a statement about the time he was kidnapped by Kfir.

“The world’s saddest birthday,” declared today the Forum of Relatives of Hostages and Missing Persons, which organized an event in Tel Aviv this afternoon to pay tribute to Kfir and demand his release.

Hamas’s armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, announced on November 29 that Argentine-born Shiri Silberman Bibas, 32, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, were killed in a bombardment by Israeli forces in the Strip. He did not provide any evidence in this regard.

A few days later, he released a video of 34-year-old Yarden Bibas – who was apparently living in captivity, separated from the rest of his family – in which he asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war so that he could then Can meet with. His wife and children.

Schneider said, “Somehow I can feel that they are still alive. I can’t explain it, but that’s how I feel. I have no choice.”

Almost two months later, the Israeli military has not been able to verify this information, something similar has happened with other hostages left for dead by Islamic militias, which is why no one from the Argentinian-Israeli Bibas family is on the list. Not there. 27. The hostages are believed to have died in captivity, with 136 still in captivity.

However, the fact that the mother and two minors were not released during a week-long ceasefire in November raised doubts over whether they were alive. There was also speculation that they were in the hands of other Islamist groups with whom Hamas was unable to establish contact.

In that ceasefire, between 24 and 30 November, Hamas released all minors held hostage, most of whom were accompanied by their mothers, out of a total of 105 hostages, in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners. Was. (EFE, Ep/CP).

Houthi rebels claim attack on US ship near Yemen