Description

During the Nir Oz attack, part of the 7 October 2023 attacks that began the Gaza war, Palestinian militants kidnapped the Bibas family from their home at the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel. The family, which held multiple citizenship of Israel, Argentina, and Germany, comprised 34-year-old Yemenite Jew Yarden (יַרְדֵּן), his 32-year-old wife Shiri, and their sons, 4-year-old Ariel (אֲרִיאֵל) and 9-month-old Kfir (כְּפִיר). All four family members were held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Yarden Bibas was abducted separately from his wife and children and held by Hamas, while Shiri Bibas and her children were reportedly held by another militant group, the Mujahideen Brigades. Ariel and Kfir Bibas, the two youngest hostages taken from Israel on 7 October, came to be regarded as symbols of the Gaza war hostage crisis.