TEL AVIV (Reuters) – A new video has emerged from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack showing Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas being taken into captivity in Gaza almost 200 days ago.
Bibas, his wife and their two sons, who at the time were aged 10 months and four years, were taken hostage during the assault led by the Palestinian militant group on communities in southern Israel.
In the video, broadcast by Israeli media and shared with Reuters by his family, Bibas is seen being led into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle driven by a man dressed in civilian clothes, armed with a pistol.
They are surrounded by a rowdy crowd, some of whom take selfies on their phones with Bibas while pulling on his beard.
In a second part of the video that cuts to moments later, some of the crowd strike out at Bibas, whose face and hands are covered in blood.
“When I saw the video that was just released, it shattered me for the 100th time. Again,” said Eylon Keshet, Bibas’ cousin, at his office in Tel Aviv.
Hamas seized more than 200 people during the Oct. 7 attack that Israel said killed about 1,200 people, sparking the war in Gaza. More than 100 of the hostages were freed in a November truce, but the Bibas family was not. Efforts to secure another hostage release have failed.
Israel says it will press on with the military offensive it launched after the Oct. 7 attack until all hostages are returned.
“We know for a fact that from the testimonies of returned hostages, that Yarden is in a very, very dire state. He was locked up 23 hours out of 24 hours every day in a very dark, small cell, and he was only allowed to go out for one hour,” said Keshet, speaking in English.
The faces of the Bibas children and their parents are prominent among the pictures and street signs of hostages in cities across Israel.
The Israeli military in February released footage of Bibas’ wife, Shiri, and their children being moved by Palestinian militants in Gaza shortly after they were kidnapped.
Hamas has said that Shiri and the two children were killed during an Israeli bombardment, but the Israeli military said the information had not been verified and accused Hamas of carrying out “psychological terror.”
Hamas has also released a video of Yarden sitting in front of a white wall in captivity, choking back sobs and begging for his family to be buried in Israel.
“His chances of survival are dwindling by the minute,” Keshet said of his cousin. “I’m really afraid that the next time I see them will be at their funeral.”
(Reporting by Rami Amichay and Michal Yaakov Itzhaki, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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