Hamas has claimed the youngest hostage kidnapped by its fighters, a 10-month-old infant, has reportedly been killed by an Israeli airstrike.
Kfir Bibas was taken along with his four-year-old brother and their mother during the October 7 attacks that saw around 240 people abducted from Israel and 1200 killed.
Hamas' claim has not been independently corroborated. The armed wing of the group did not provide evidence for its claim, CNN reports.
Israel's military said it was still "assessing the accuracy of the information".
"IDF representatives spoke with the Bibas family following the recent reports and are with them at this difficult time. The IDF is assessing the accuracy of the information," a spokesperson told The Guardian.
“Hamas is wholly responsible for the security of all hostages in the Gaza Strip. Hamas must be held accountable. Hamas’s actions continue to endanger the hostages, which include nine children. Hamas must immediately release our hostages.”
Family of infant pleaded for his release
Kfir was the youngest of about 30 children who were taken hostage.
Under a current temporary cease-fire, Hamas has released women, children and teens, but the infant with red hair and a toothless smile hasn’t been included on the lists of those set to be freed, according to his family.
With most other young hostages already released, Kfir’s fate and that of his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, are now a rallying cry for Israelis seeking the speedy release of all the hostages.
A demonstration in support of the Bibas family was held in Tel Aviv on Tuesday (local time).
“There is no precedent for something like this, for a baby who was kidnapped when he was 9 months old,” Eylon Keshet, a cousin of Kfir’s father, told reporters.
“Is baby Kfir the enemy of Hamas?”
Shortly after the Hamas attack, video emerged of Kfir and Ariel swaddled in a blanket around their mother, Shiri, as gunmen shouting in Arabic surrounded her.
The mother appears terrified.
“No one will hurt her, so she would know that we care about humanity. Cover her and keep her until you take her alive. Let her know,” a man is heard saying in the video.
“She has children,” says another. “She has children, yes,” the first speaker responds.
The boys' father, Yarden Bibas, also was taken captive with his wife and sons and appears in photos to have been wounded.
His sister, Ofri Bibas Levy, wondered why it was taking so long for the boys to be freed.
“Maybe it’s part of a psychological war against us,” she said. “My hope is that they don’t see them as a trophy.”
Their family, like other relatives of hostages, has been in emotional torment since October 7. They have received no sign that Kfir is still alive and wonder how such a helpless child can cope with being in captivity.
“I am mostly trying to understand how they pass an entire day there,” Bibas Levy told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this month.
“Is Kfir getting his bottle?” she asked.
The baby still was only crawling when he was seized, but is likely to have reached the stage when he starts using objects to stand up and move around, his aunt noted.
In Israel and beyond, Kfir has become a symbol of the brutality of Hamas' attack last month.
Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has brought Kfir's picture to international media studios and brandished it on camera.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant referred to him in a news conference, wondering who was looking out for him.
A reporter for Israel's Channel 12 broke down on camera while reporting about the family this week, saying “I think an entire nation wished they were coming home."
Additional reporting by the Associated Press
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