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By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz said Israel may know the fate of the Bibas family.
In an interview with Kan 11, Gantz answered in the affirmative when a journalist asked if Israel knew what happened to 9-month-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel, 32-year-old mother Shiri, and 34-year-old father Yarden.
Gantz answered, “I think yes,” and added that the details would be made public “when things come to fruition.”
The family has been the focus of those advocating for the hostages, not least because Kfir is the youngest of the 250 hostages taken on October 7th.
The family members were taken hostage by Hamas during their attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Shiri Bibas’s parents were murdered in the attack.
There have been many reports about the Bibas family since October 7th, some of them conflicting.
The IDF indicated that Hamas had sent the family to another terrorist group in Gaza.
After the November temporary ceasefire, during which the first group of hostages were released, Hamas did not release the Bibas children and later claimed they had died during an Israeli airstrike.
The IDF accused Hamas of issuing the statement as a form of psychological warfare on Israeli civilians but could not deny the claim, adding that Israel is working to investigate the fate of the three captives.
“The Hamas terror organization continues to act in a cruel and inhumane manner,” the IDF said.
In mid-February, the IDF released a video showing Shiri Bibas alive just after October 7th and being taken with the children to an undisclosed location.
After seeing the video, relatives of the four captives castigated Hamas, and reiterated their calls for Israeli leaders and those abroad involved with the talks aimed at a hostage deal to ensure the release of the Bibas family.
“These videos tear our hearts out,’ the family said in a statement. “Witnessing Shiri, Yarden, Ariel and Kfir, ripped away from their home in Nir Oz into this hellscape, feels unbearable and inhumane.”
There is some speculation that the October 7th mastermind Yahya Sinwar may be using the Bibas children as human shields.
