OAN Staff James Meyers
10:25 AM – Friday, January 31, 2025
Hamas announced on Friday that they would be freeing the father of the youngest hostages kidnapped in the October 7th attack on the Jewish State, in addition to two others that include a dual U.S. citizen, in the next exchange of hostages for “Palestinian prisoners.”
Yarden Bibas, Keith Siegel, and Ofer Kalderon will reportedly be exchanged on Saturday, Hamas armed wing spokesperson Abu Obeida announced in a post on his Telegram channel.
Bibas is the father of “baby Kfir,” who was only 9-months-old when Hamas kidnapped him, and Ariel, who was only 4-years-old at the time of the terrorist attack.
Previously, there was no word on the status of Kfir and Ariel, or their mother Shiri, who was also captured at the same time.
Hamas, who is already known to lie about the “death numbers” of Palestinian civilians via the Palestinian Ministry of Health, as it is controlled by the Islamist terrorist group, initially claimed in late 2023 that the soon-to-be-released children had been killed by Israeli bombardment in the early months of the war.
Videos quickly began to surface after they were taken. It showed a horrified Shiri grabbing onto her small children in a blanket as they were put into captivity by the terrorists.
The father, Yarden, 34, was also abducted at the time of the attack. Another clip began circulating that depicted him badly bleeding from an apparent head injury.
As for the Israeli-American, Keith Siegel, who was taken hostage along with his wife, Aviva — he was captured on film in a separate video released by Hamas last year. His wife was released in the first hostage-for-prisoner exchange back in November 2023.
Kalderon’s two children, Erez and Sahar, who were abducted alongside him, were released in the first hostage exchange.
Hamas recently freed only three Israelis and five Thai hostages in Gaza, while Israel freed 110 Palestinian prisoners on Thursday after delaying the process.
Meanwhile, under the latest ceasefire deal that paused over 5 months of ongoing fighting, 33 hostages being held by Hamas are set to be freed within the first six weeks of the truce — in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, with many of them serving life sentences in Israeli for a wide range of crimes.
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