Relatives of an Israeli mother and child who appeared to be shown in captivity in Gaza in newly released videos from the day of the Hamas-led attack said Tuesday they hoped the footage would call attention to the urgency of freeing the hostages.
The Israeli military distributed videos Monday evening that it said showed members of the Bibas family in the area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Oct. 7. The New York Times could not immediately verify the footage, which showed a figure being covered in a blanket while appearing to hold a redheaded child.
In a tearful news conference, Ofri Bibas-Levy, the sister of Yarden Bibas, who was taken captive along with his wife Shiri and their two red-haired children, Ariel and Kfir, said that she was desperately calling on Israeli and international leaders to bring her relatives home through a negotiated deal.
“When we saw the video, it really tore our hearts out,” Ms. Bibas-Levy said.
The fate of the Bibas family has been murky. In late November, Hamas claimed that Ms. Bibas and the children had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Israeli officials have not confirmed the claim.
The Bibas family was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a town along Israel’s border with Gaza where more than 70 of the roughly 240 hostages were seized. Kfir, who was nine months old at the time of his capture, is the youngest hostage in Gaza. Israeli officials estimate that about 130 hostages remain in captivity, although at least 30 of those are thought to be dead.
In the videos, which the Israeli military said were taken from security cameras in Khan Younis, red hair on the back of a child’s head can be seen over the shoulder of a barefooted figure walking along a dirt path, as if the child is being carried. Surrounded by a few men, at least one of whom is armed, the figures are draped in a blue-and-white-patterned blanket and transferred into a car.
Kfir is not seen in the videos, but Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said in a news briefing that the baby was likely in a carrier on his mother’s chest, as he was when the family was captured in Israel. He did not say how the authorities had confirmed the identities.
The Israeli military could not confirm whether Ms. Bibas and her children are alive or dead, but Admiral Hagari said that based on the information available to them, “we are very concerned and worried about the condition and well-being of Shiri and the children.”
He added that “we are making every effort to obtain more information about their fate.”
The fate of the Bibas family has captivated Israel’s public, and the release of the videos made headlines in Israeli media. Yedioth Ahronoth, a popular Israeli daily, led its front page with an article titled “A Mother and Two Small Souls, Led Into the Darkness.”
“I know they became a symbol,” Ms. Bibas-Levy said, “but for us it’s our family, and we want them back.”
