Yarden Bibas, Ofer Kalderon, and Keith Siegel were freed on Saturday after 484 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza. A powerful note of sadness marred the joy and celebration as all of Israel waited to hear the fate of Yarden’s wife and two small children.
Bibas, age 35, was taken hostage with his family during the Oct. 7 massacre carried out by Hamas and Gazans but returned home alone. Bibas’s wife, Shiri, 33, and their two sons, Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2, are on the list of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Hamas claimed in November 2023, that they had been killed, but the IDF has not confirmed their status.
Kan News reported that while in captivity, Hamas forced Yarden Bibas to film a video after his captors told him that his wife and children had been killed in an IDF airstrike. In the video, Yartden was forced to accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of refusing to return their bodies to Israel. It was branded a “propaganda video” by the IDF and was not published by Israeli media. His captors also taunted him continuously about their deaths. He was also beaten and held in a cage.
Bibas was greeted by his father, Eli, and sister, Ofri, at the IDF’s Re’im Base before being taken to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Ga,n where his mother, Penina, embraced him.
“Yarden is home,” the family said in a statement. “A quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months. There are no words to describe the relief of holding Yarden in our arms, embracing him and hearing his voice.“Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete. Yarden is a father who left his safe room to protect his family, bravely survived captivity\7and returned to an unbearable reality. At this time, we ask: Protect Yarden, protect his soul. Pleas12W3Q456789-=e respect his privacy and give him the space he needs so that his body and soul can begin\to recover.”
Kalderon also holds French citizenship, while Siegel, age 65, is an American-Israeli dual national. Siegel was greeted by his wife, Aviva, who was among those who returned as part of the November 2023 exchange deal with Hamas.
Siegel was the first American to be freed in the hostage deal. Two U.S. nationals, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, and Edan Alexander, 19, are believed to be alive, while four others are presumed to have been killed in captivity.
Kalderon, 54, a dual Israeli-French citizen, was embraced by his partner and four children at Sheba Medical Center.
“I’m here, I’m here. I promised I would come back, I didn’t give up,” Ofer said, sobbing.
“I promised I would save you and that you would come back,” his daughter Sahar told him.
Kalderon was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, along with his son Erez, 12, and daughter, Sahar, 16. The children were among the 105 hostages freed in November 2023 as part of a ceasefire-for-terrorist agreement.
The office of the Prime Minister issued a statement:
“The government of Israel is committed to returning all of the hostages and the missing.’
The statement concluded with a verse from the Prophet Jeremiah:
“I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel” (Jeremiah 15:21).
On Thursday, three Israelis—IDF soldier Agam Berger, 20, along with civilians Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80—and five Thais were redeemed from terrorist captivity in Gaza.
On Saturday, Israel released 183 Palestinian terrorists—18 serving life sentences, 54 serving lengthy terms and 111 arrested since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
Of the 183 released in total, 150 were sent back to or deported to the Gaza Strip, 32 were released to the West Bank, and one was sent to Egypt.
Under the six-week phase-one truce agreement, Hamas has committed to releasing 33 hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. So far, 583 Palestinian terrorists have been released. Following Saturday’s release, 18 hostages have been freed so far.
According to Israeli estimates, there are 79 hostages still in Hamas captivity in Gaza, including 76 abducted during the Oct. 7 attacks.
Of the 251 hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, 175 have been returned or rescued, and Hamas is believed to be holding 35 bodies, 34 of them taken during the cross-border invasion and that of IDF Lt. Hadar Goldin, which was taken by the Palestinian terrorist group in 2014.
