JERUSALEM: Former Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas, whose wife and children were killed while held by Gaza militants, has urged US President Donald Trump to press Israel to end the war to rescue the remaining captives.
In a first interview since being released from the Gaza Strip in February, under a truce deal that has since collapsed, Bibas said Israel’s resumption of military operations this month would not help free the dozens of hostages still held in the Palestinian territory.
“Please stop this war, and help bring all the hostages back,” Bibas said, addressing Trump in an interview with CBS News “60 Minutes” aired late Sunday.
“I know he can help,” said Bibas.
“I’m here because of Trump, I’m here only because of him, I think he’s the only one who can stop this war again.”
Palestinian militants abducted Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri nad their two young boys Ariel and Kfir, during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 which triggered the war.
The family — and particularly four-year-old Ariel and Kfir, who was just eight months old when taken captive — became a symbol of the hostage tragedy in Israel.
Israeli authorities have accused Hamas of murdering Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas “in cold blood.”
Hamas said in November 2023 that all three were killed in an Israeli air strike that hit the location where they were being held. Their bodies were returned in February, after the father’s release.
Yarden Bibas, asked if he thought the resumed fighting in Gaza could encourage Hamas to release hostages, replied: “No.”
Israel resumed intense bombing on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has argued was proving effective in swaying Hamas negotiators.
Bibas told CBS News that while he was held in Gaza, Israeli bombardment was “scary, you don’t know when it’s going to happen, and when it happens, you’re afraid for your life.”
Of the 251 hostages seized during the 2023 attack, 58 are still held in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
The truce since January saw the return of 33 Israeli hostages, including some who were deceased, in exchange for about 1,800 Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Freed Israeli hostage Bibas calls on Trump to stop Gaza war
https://arab.news/2epw4
Freed Israeli hostage Bibas calls on Trump to stop Gaza war
- Palestinian militants abducted Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri nad their two young boys Ariel and Kfir
- Bibas said Israel’s resumption of military operations this month would not help free the dozens of hostages still held in the Palestinian territory
Israeli FM urges Jews to move to Israel a week after Sydney attack
- “Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said
JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called on Sunday for Jews in Western countries to move to Israel to escape rising antisemitism, one week after 15 were shot dead at a Jewish event in Sydney.
“Jews have the right to live in safety everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening, and we have a certain historical experience. Today, Jews are being hunted across the world,” Saar said at a public candle lighting marking the last day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
“Today I call on Jews in England, Jews in France, Jews in Australia, Jews in Canada, Jews in Belgium: come to the Land of Israel! Come home!” Saar said at the ceremony, held with leaders of Jewish communities and organizations worldwide.
Since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israeli leaders have repeatedly denounced a surge in antisemitism in Western countries and accused their governments of failing to curb it.
Australian authorities have said the December 14 attack on a Hanukkah event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach was inspired by the ideology of the Islamic State jihadist group.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Western governments to better protect their Jewish citizens.
“I demand that Western governments do what is necessary to fight antisemitism and provide the required safety and security for Jewish communities worldwide,” Netanyahu said in a video address.
In October, Saar accused British authorities of failing to take action to curb a “toxic wave of antisemitism” following an attack outside a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, in which two people were killed and four wounded.
According to Israel’s 1950 “Law of Return,” any Jewish person in the world is entitled to settle in Israel (a process known in Hebrew as aliyah, or “ascent“) and acquire Israeli citizenship. The law also applies to individuals who have at least one Jewish grandparent.zz
