Here are the hostages due to be released tomorrow
Three men have been announced as tomorrow’s hostage releases.
One is dual American/Israeli citizen Keith Seigel, 65 years old. His wife had also been taken hostage but was released in the first round of exchanges in the fall of 2023.
Another is Ofer Calderon, age 54. Two of his children had originally been kidnapped but were released in the fall 2023 exchange.
There is also Yarden Bibas, who is 35 years old. It is wonderful that he is coming back, but also very ominous that his wife and two small children, also kidnapped, have not yet been returned. In fact, it was already ominous that they had not been returned long ago with the other children in the fall of 2023. At that time, Hamas announced that they are dead – and of course blamed it on Israel – but Israel has not confirmed the deaths. I would be very surprised if they are alive. Yarden, the father, was already told of their deaths in a harrowing and sadistic video Hamas released back in November of 2023:
The footage, which the group released as a sick propaganda video, shows Yarden Bibas, 34, sobbing and visibly shaken as his captors inform him that his children, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas and 4-year-old Ariel, have been killed along with his wife and wife, Shiri Silverman-Bibas, 32.
A distressed Babis then begs to have their bodies returned to Israel and blames Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for their deaths — repeating similar condemnation of Israel’s government in previous hostage videos ripped as propaganda.
Hamas had claimed that the Bibas family had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip but did not offer proof and the fate of the family has not been verified.
I actually don’t think there’s much question that they are dead. But Hamas is tricky and you can’t be 100% sure. They are reportedly on the list of 33 to be returned in this phase, but Hamas has not yet said whether they are dead or alive. But bodies can contain evidence of who actually killed them, and it could have been Hamas or some of their confederates.
Yarden Bibas has a long long road ahead of him, and I wish him help and healing. There are other relatives of his who say that they “are facing very complex days” ahead. Indeed.
Hamas and its supporters are savages, not better than rabid dogs and more dangerous. This was a bad deal. Once those that are coming out are back, every last one of these animals need put to sleep.
It’s extremely distressing to any loving parent or grandparent that the Bibas children – a baby and a toddler – have not released by the Hamas savages. I can only think that, if alive, they are in so bad a condition that any claims that they were treated humanely is given the lie. And if they are dead – then the condition of their corpses also gives the lie to any Hamas claims.
Do we have any evidence that additional arms are still being smuggled into Gaza, or are the Hamasites still drawing on some reserve inventory the IDF has not yet discovered and destroyed?
If the IDF controls the Rafah Gate to Egypt, etc., and the surrounding border and coast, then presumably the “aid” is the source of any new arms and ammunition? I doubt the IDF can search it all thoroughly enough to garantee no war materials is not included.
Not sure what to believe between the stories of near starvation vs. video of healthy crowds harrassing the hostages as they are released. Could still be that both views are true?
I’ll believe it when I see it. I know anyone can say anything on the Internet. But what the hell good have I been to anyone all these years of i.wasnt training for war
Neo, true love means putting everything on the line
Aged rugby player
I’ve been thinking about all the time I wasted.