Israel set to learn if youngest hostages Kfir, Ariel Bibas are still alive

The family of two year old Kfir Bibas and his five year old brother are on tenterhooks as Hamas says it will reveal the status of the remaining 26 hostages on the release list for the first phase of the ceasefire.

Kfir Bibas from Kibbutz Nir Oz has turned two in captivity.

The family of the youngest Israeli hostages in Hamas hands are hoping to find out if they are still alive this weekend, as the terror group says it will reveal the status of the remaining 26 hostages to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire.

Hamas has said it will on Friday (local time) publish the status of those hostages as well as the names of the four women to be freed on Saturday.

The militant group declared last year that Kfir Bibas, who turned two last weekend, his brother Ariel, 5 and parents Shiri and Yarden had died in captivity. However the fact their names were put on the list of the first prisoners to be freed gave their family fresh hope.

However, Israel’s state broadcaster Kan TV, citing security officials, said Israel was bracing for the probability that Hamas would only provide the number of living hostages, and not specific details or names.

Ynet TV reports that Jerusalem estimates that of the 26 hostages on the first release list, 18 are alive and eight are dead.

Yarden and Shiri Bibas with their sons Kfir and Ariel. Picture: Supplied

The Bibas family recently said they were “aware of reports that mention that all of our family members are included in Stage One of the agreement, and Shiri and the children are among the first to be released.”

“We are experienced with disappointments, so until our loved ones cross the border, there is no end to the fight,” they wrote.

Eli Bibas, the father of Yarden, father-in-law of Shiri, and grandfather of Ariel and Kfir, said: “I have already gone through a year and three months in which I have learned to live with uncertainty, fear, lack of control, and helplessness.”

Israeli media reports that the four female hostages to be freed on Saturday are expected to include three kidnapped female soldiers and Arbel Yehud from Nir Oz, who, is being held by a Salafi group linked to Islamic Jihad in Khan Yunis.

Speaking to the Qatari Al-Araby news outlet, senior Hamas leader Zaher Jabarin said “Tomorrow we will give the mediators the names of the four hostages who will be released.”

For each of the female soldiers released, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, 30 of them convicted terrorists who are serving life sentences, Israel media reports.

On Thursday, the parents of Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher, who were freed last weekend, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to do everything he could to bring the rest of the hostages home.

“We didn’t give up and we won’t give up on the others,” Mr Netanyahu told them in a recording of the call distributed by the Prime Minister’s Office.

Merav Leshem Gonen, Romi’s mother, thanked him for doing the “moral, responsible thing, having the courage” to bring them home. She said the three women are starting their process of recovery, “and their strong wish is to bring back the rest of their brothers and sisters.”