Living hell for hostage families six months on

‘You can’t fathom this as a reality’: Sydney aunt mourns the lost milestones of her nephew’s one year-old son, kept hostage by Hamas for six months.

Michal Keshet, an Israeli woman who has lived in Sydney with her family for 25 years, reflects on her family being held hostage by Hamas for six months. Picture: John Feder

They are the first thing Sydney woman Michal Keshet thinks about when she wakes up and the last thing she thinks about when she goes to sleep.

Her nephew, Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri, who will turn 33 this month, and their two ginger-haired children, four-year-old Ariel and one-year-old Kfir, who were taken hostage by Hamas six months ago, have become a symbol of the cruelty of the terrorist organisation.

The Bibas family, from left, Yarden, Shiri, Ariel, 4 and Kfir, 1.

“When I eat, when I drink, any regular action, it all surrounds them. It’s almost this guilty feeling of being free and alive, and knowing there’s nothing I can do to help them. Seeing my sister (Yarden’s mother) and my niece trying desperately to get the world to help … It’s really heartbreaking,” the Israeli woman, who has lived in Sydney for 25 years, says.

“It’s the nightmare of every mum that no one ever imagines (will happen) … I don’t know how she’s surviving.”

The family, who like the loved ones of all hostages, have reluctantly been thrust into the spotlight for the “wrong” reasons, Ms Keshet says, in the absence of successful government intervention.

“We are such a private family. We don’t want any of this, we’ve been thrown into it because of this horrible reality. Millions of people know my family, which feels so awkward and wrong. It’s for the wrong reasons,” she says.

Hamas claimed in November that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, who are being held separately to Yarden, were killed by an Israeli airstrike, but Israeli officials say the claims are unverified. “I have hope. My gut feeling tells me they are alive,” Ms Keshet says.

“There is no proof (of their condition). The only videos we have so far is of Shiri on October 7 when she and the kids were kidnapped, and another video released in February by the IDF which was taken (in Gaza) on the same day, October 7. It’s the last sign of life we have of Shiri and the kids.

“And the next of Yarden being tortured back in November after being told his family was dead, and in the process torturing us by videoing the whole thing, him sobbing and begging to bring his dead family home.

The Bibas family kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Picture: IDF

“We are really hoping they are still alive. Although it’s been six months and they are living in inhumane conditions … I can’t stop imagining what is happening there.”

Ms Keshet says she can’t understand why the kidnapping of two young children doesn’t “shake the world to its core”. “I don’t understand how we’re not doing more about it. I’m very disappointed with Australia as well,” she says.

“Moving forward, I just hope that there is enough pressure that is put on worldwide from Australia, from every other country in the world, on Hamas to release the hostages. It has nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with anything, it’s about human decency, it’s about human rights.”

US representatives along with a delegation from New York visit the Bibas family house at Kibbutz Nir Oz. Picture: Getty Images

Zack Shachar, a close family member of 19-year-old hostage Naama Levy, says it’s been a “rollercoaster” of hope and despair. Hostages who were released in November reported seeing Naama and described her as having an injured leg, but she was talkative.

Atara and Zack Shachar, whose cousin Naama Levy is being held hostage by Hamas. Picture: John Feder

“That gives us some hope and indicated she is OK because she was talking,” Sydney-based Mr Shachar says. “And then we didn’t hear anything for months, and then a few weeks ago we received ‘signs of life’ (from the IDF). Nothing else was shared … That is where the hard part comes, because we’ve heard testimony from one of the hostages about what life is like underground in the tunnels.

“We will never lose hope.”

Mr Shachar says his fear is that “people have moved on”.

“It feels that the rest of the world and Australian people have moved on. You can see it based on number of people coming to rallies.”