There were tears, screams of joy and tight embraces as three men taken from their communities on October 7 and kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, were reunited with relatives on Saturday, 484 days after they were taken hostage.
Soon after he was released, Yarden Bibas was met at the military facility near Re’im by his father Eli and sister Ofri.
“We love you,” Eli can be heard to say in the video footage as the three tightly embrace as they meet for the first time. “You are sweet. Keep your sense of humor. We love you.”
Bibas, his wife Shiri, and children Ariel and Kfir were all abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Kfir was 10-months-old and Ariel was 4 at the time.
On Friday, the Bibas family released a statement on the “complex” situation they faced — Hamas has claimed that Shiri and the two boys were killed in captivity. Israel has not confirmed this claim, but has expressed “grave concern” for their fate.
Fears for the fate of the Bibas trio have grown, as Hamas did not return them among the first hostages released. Living women and children were supposed to be freed first under the deal, followed by injured and infirm men and men over 50.
Earlier this week, Israel reportedly demanded that Hamas clarify the condition of Shiri and the two small boys.
As of Friday night, Israel had reportedly received no fresh information.
Yarden was kidnapped to Gaza separately from his wife and children. Freed hostage Nili Margalit revealed in December 2023 that she was with Yarden when Hamas terrorists told him his family had been killed.
Ofer Calderon was also taken to the facility near Re’im, but was reunited with his four children at the Sheba Hospital in central Israel.
Video showed the emotional release as he met his four children Erez, Sahar, Rotem and Gaya.
“Daddy, daddy!” the children said as they ran to him and hugged him.
“It’s over,” said Sahar, who had been held hostage in Gaza, as had her brother Erez.
“Everyone is ok, daddy” Gaya said as she hugged her father. “We are all ok.”
“We’re going on a bike ride for a whole week,” Ofer promised the children. “I promised I would come back, I didn’t give up.”
An earlier photo released by the Israel Defense Forces showed him on a helicopter, holding a whiteboard on which he had drawn a heart.
Calderon, a dual Israel-French national, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 with Sahar and Erez, then aged 16 and 12, who were both freed in the previous ceasefire.
On his way to meet the children, Calderon asked to stop the vehicle he was traveling in so that he could greet his friends who had gathered at the medical center to welcome him.
“I love all of you,” he shouted at his friends, waving his hands.
Keith Siegel was the last of the three to be released, set free by the Hamas terror group at a separate location from Bibas and Calderon.
Siegel, originally from North Carolina, was taken captive with his wife from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Aviva was freed during a previous ceasefire in November 2023. Keith’s 97-year-old mother died in December, without seeing him a final time.
“Here he is, here he is, here he is! He looks good!” Aviva shouted as she watched the release, reacting with delight along with their son Shai.
Aviva said after she was freed that she had thought her son Shai was killed on October 7 when he went out to fight the terrorists, and only found out that he had survived when she was released. It was unclear if Keith knew in advance of his return that his son was alive.
The freed hostages are among 251 Israelis and foreigners kidnapped on October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, amid rampant acts of brutality and overt targeting of civilians.
Seventy-six of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas has so far released 18 hostages — civilians, soldiers and Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
The second stage of the three-part deal is supposed to result in the release of all remaining living hostages not included in the first stage — mainly men of fighting age — but the sides must still hash out the number and identities of Palestinian prisoners to be let go as part of the deal.
The talks on the next stage are slated to begin no later than February 3, which is 16 days after the deal went into effect. Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump are scheduled to meet in the White House on February 4.