As part of the ongoing ceasefire agreement, three Israeli hostages are scheduled for release tomorrow: Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Ofer Calderon. While their impending freedom brings joy, profound sadness persists for families whose loved ones remain captive or unaccounted for. Notably, Yarden Bibas's wife, Shiri, and their young sons, Ariel and Kfir, are still missing, with unconfirmed reports suggesting they may have been killed in captivity. Similarly, Keith Siegel's wife, Aviva, was previously released, but their children remain unaccounted for.
Jonathan Regev reports from Tel Aviv.
Jonathan Regev reports from Tel Aviv.
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00:00So, it's those three names you mentioned, Jamie, and the story you also mentioned, which
00:07will make tomorrow's release quite difficult.
00:11On the one hand, there will be happiness to see three more hostages coming back and ceasefire
00:16is clearly working.
00:18On the other hand, the story of Yarden Bibas is difficult to say the least.
00:23He will come back, but there will be no immediate family to receive him.
00:28As you mentioned, his wife and his two little children are still in Gaza.
00:33One of them was kidnapped when he was only a nine-month-old baby.
00:37The other, a four-year-old little boy.
00:39And according to the agreement, the women and the children should be released before
00:45the men, even before the women soldiers, that is, if they're alive.
00:49Because the agreement also says that the living hostages will be released before those who
00:55are not alive.
00:56Therefore, it seems as if the story is coming into a very sad end.
01:02Shiri Bibas, the mother, and her two little children, Kfir and Ariel, were seen taken
01:09by Hamas militants alive to Gaza.
01:12And there was also even a short video of them once arriving to the Gaza Strip.
01:17A few weeks after that, Hamas said that both the mother and the two children were killed
01:23in an Israeli strike.
01:25There was no confirmation since then.
01:27Therefore, at least officially, Israel never declared that the three of them are not alive.
01:33But judging by what we're seeing, and according to the terms of the agreement, all of the
01:38women, all of the living women have already been released, including the soldiers.
01:45Men are already being released, and this mother and her two children are not released.
01:50Her father will be coming tomorrow to what will be a grim welcome.
01:56And along with the joy and the happiness and the excitement we'll see tomorrow, this story
02:00will clearly create a lot of sadness.
02:03Along with Ariel, then Bibas, as you mentioned, two more hostages.
02:06One is Keith Siegel, an Israeli-American, 65-year-old.
02:10He was kidnapped along with his wife.
02:13She was released in the first hostage release back in November 2023.
02:18There is Calderon, a 54-year-old.
02:20He was kidnapped along with his two children.
02:23One of them is 12.
02:24The other is 17.
02:25Both of them were also released back in November 2023.
02:30And this will be the story of this release.
02:34When the ceasefire was agreed on and the hostages began to arrive back, it was clear that there
02:41will come a time in which the joy will be coming alongside with other difficult feelings.
02:48This will probably be the day, the understanding that Shiri Bibas and her two little children
02:53might not be alive.
02:54Later on, during the first phase of the ceasefire, some dead bodies will return because, according
03:00to the list given by Hamas to Israel, eight of the 33 people in the list are not alive.
03:08And it will create that very grim reality of the ceasefire agreement.