Youngest hostage killed in Israeli airstrike: Hamas

Extension of ceasefire complicated by news the youngest hostage, 10 month old Kfir Bibas and his brother and mother are dead.

Hundreds of orange balloons are released in Tel Aviv in support of Kfir and Ariel Bibas. Picture: Getty Images

The youngest Israeli hostage, 10- month Kfir Bibas and his four -year-old brother Ariel have been killed in an Israeli airstrike alongside their mother Shiri Silberman-Bibas, Hamas claims.

The baby, who was learning to crawl when snatched on October 7 along with his mother and older brother, had become a symbol of the Israeli hostages’ suffering.

The development has rocked the extended Bibas family and other families of the 160 hostages still being held.

Hamas’ armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades said on Wednesday night that the three Bibas family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike before the prisoner-hostage truce began last week. The claims were made without providing any evidence. The Israel army said it was checking the claims.

The fate of Kfir’s father Yarden, 34, who was also kidnapped, was not mentioned.

Just hours before the announcement, Bibas family members said they believed the young boys and their mother had been passed by Hamas to another group in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Yossi Schneider, Shiri’s cousin told Israel television of the daily torment when Kfir and the family were not on that day’s hostage release list.

“What were the Hamas terrorists exactly thinking of when they kidnapped them? What exactly were they afraid of? What did they think that Kfir could do to them? They are passing him from hand to hand like an animal. I don’t understand it,” he said.

Kfir Bibas. Picture: Instagram

Another cousin Yifat told Sky News: “What are these groups? We reach a dead end every time we try to figure out why Hamas is having so much trouble getting them back or whether that means if they’re alive or not.

“It’s really frustrating. It feels very far away, although it’s really close by. Hamas is ruling over the strip, and I hope that whichever group is holding them will oblige and will give them (up).

“They said that they’re going to move those hostages into Hamas hands, so I hope those groups will do that as well.”

Earlier this week 500 orange balloons – referring to the boys’ hair colour – were launched in the Hostage and Family square in Tel Aviv to highlight their plight after they were not released in the first batches of the hostage-prisoner swap.

The plight of the family has been centre stage since Hamas footage filmed on October 7 shows the terrorists in Nir Oz Kibbutz dragging a terrified and sobbing Shiri clutching her two boys in a blanket towards a car as a neighbour screamed “she has a baby”.

Kfir and Ariel Bibas and their mum, Shiri Silverman-Bibas, are shown in video footage being taken hostage by Hamas.

On Wednesday afternoon the Israel Defence Forces said: “The terrorist organisation Hamas continues to act in a cruel and inhuman manner. IDF representatives spoke with the members of the Bibas family, informed them of the publication and are accompanying them at this time.

“The IDF is examining the reliability of the information. The responsibility for the safety of all the abductees in the Gaza Strip lies fully with the terrorist organisation Hamas.”

The IDF called for the immediate return of all the abductees including nine children still held in captivity.

“Hamas endangers the abductees, including nine children,’’ the IDF said. “Hamas is required to immediately return them to Israel.

“The IDF will continue to support the Bibas family as well as all the families of the abductees.”