Family members of Hamas’ youngest hostages, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, 2 and 5, said they are still holding onto hope despite the terror group’s announcement that the ginger-haired boys and their mother had been killed in the Gaza Strip.
“Staying optimistic,” Yosi Shnaider, cousin of Shiri, texted The Post, when asked if he and the boys’ dad, Yarden Bibas, believed the ghoulish report.
Hamas announced Tuesday that the remains of the Bibas family would be among four bodies returned to Israel on Thursday as part of the cease-fire deal.
Israel has not confirmed the deaths, but said the Jewish state has “grave concerns” about their wellbeing.
“I believe they’re alive – I personally don’t believe they are dead,” Shnaider said last Friday, despite the three not being released in the first month of the hostage-ceasefire deal implemented in mid-January.
The terms of the controversial deal stipulated that living women and children would be released before bodies were returned.
The Bibas boys and their mom became symbols of the shocking brutality of the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. Hamas video revealed the terrified mom shielding her sweet children as terrorists flanked them during their abduction into Gaza.
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That searing pain has been etched in the hearts of hostage supporters praying for their release ever since.
As they cling to their phones awaiting news each Friday that their relatives will be on Hamas’ list of those being released the following day, Bibas family members say the wait is agonizing.
”You pray and hope every Friday,” said Shnaider, explaining that he refreshes the app regularly used by Hamas as its communications channel. “I open a Telegram every 30 seconds to see if their name is on the list.
“Every Friday, they send the names on Telegram and you wait to see if your family is going to live or not. And if not this week, you’ll have to wait to see if they’re on the list next week.”
The 46-year-old cousin who lives in Israel cried in frustration.
“You’re waiting for the biggest thing in your life — to see if they’re walking or in a bag,” he said.
“Do you know what it is to wait week after week after week for a list, and release only three every week?”
A statement from the Bibas family released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters on Tuesday, read in part, “We want to make it clear that while we are aware of these reports, we have not yet received any official confirmation regarding this matter.
“Until we receive definitive confirmation, our journey is not over.”
Father Yarden Bibas, 35, was released by Hamas on Feb. 1. He returned from 15 months of one hell to another hell — not knowing the fate of his family, immediately asked about his wife and children after he was released.
“We told him the truth – that we don’t know,” Shnaider said. “We have nothing.”
