The Littlest Hostage: Happy Birthday, Kfir

One hundred and three days. That's how long the remaining hostages held by Hamas or their terrorist pals in Gaza since the horrific October 7 attacks on Israel have been in captivity.

Three hundred and sixty-five days. That's how long little Kfir Bibas has been alive, as he celebrates his first birthday on Thursday. The ginger-haired infant who's become one of the best-known faces of the hostages has spent 28 percent of his life in the custody of barbaric terrorists.

This, of course, presumes that Kfir is still alive. We don't know for certain. In early December, Hamas claimed that the Kfir, along with his four-year-old brother, Ariel, and his mother, Shiri, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, but then, Hamas isn't known for its veracity.

It was all a Hamas lie.

Hamas made a deal with Israel to return the Bibas boys and their mom as part of the hostage release ceasefire deal. The Bibas family wasn’t “killed by Israeli airstrikes.” They were alive when Israel agreed to a ceasefire!

Then Hamas started playing… pic.twitter.com/k8Dtfdu4In
— Marina Medvin 🇺🇸 (@MarinaMedvin) December 2, 2023

So the assumption — the hope — is that Kfir and his family are still alive, though that sadly places them among the 132 thought to still be in Gaza, though only 107 of them are believed to be alive. And it's not as though the ones who are alive aren't facing horrific conditions and treatment.

Dr. Itai Pessach, one of the physicians who treated freed Israeli hostages, described a disturbing pattern of abuse that the terrorists inflicted on these individuals during an interview with CBS News.
Pessach said he believes both Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from PTSD: "When they undergo events such as this, this will take its toll, and it doesn't matter if they're on this side or the other side."
He also believes that television pictures of the freed hostages that suggested they had not been physically abused were misleading. "I think it was very deceptive," said Pessach. "There's not a single person that came back that didn't have a significant physical injury or a medical problem. On top of that, some of them were getting medication, to look better than they actually were."
There were also stories of hostages being branded (a common practice inflicted on Jews and other prisoners of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust), and of being sexually abused. "Yes, we did see signs of branding," Pessach said. "We definitely saw signs of being handcuffed. We did hear and see evidence of sexual abuse in a significant part of the people we have treated. We also heard evidence – and that was one of the hardest parts – of abuse against those that [are still there], both physical and sexual."
The doctor also described the psychological torture that the hostages endured.
Pessach also said hostages were subjected to psychological torture (as in being told that Israel no longer exists). "What really struck me is how prepared the Hamas terrorists were with their psychological torment," he said. "It was structured and preplanned. They're constantly saying, 'Nobody cares about you. You are here alone. You hear the bombs falling? They don't care about you. We're here to protect you.' And this really played with their minds.

Odd, too, to reference baby Kfir "celebrating" his birthday in captivity — perhaps "marking" would be a better term. Extended family are marking the day, as well.

The only celebrations taking place will be without the birthday boy, who, along with his 4-year-old brother Ariel, and their parents, Shiri and Yarden, has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since they were all abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
The extended Bibas family and supporters are to gather at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv at 3 p.m. on Thursday, where they will be joined by major Israeli children’s entertainers to help bring attention to the ongoing trauma of the Bibas abduction.
Other entertainers, along with Miller and several Bibas relatives, have recorded a song about Kfir, “They Call Me Gingi,” the Hebrew term for a redhead, released for his first birthday.

I don't know the Bibas family, but they are most certainly on my mind today. To mark the occasion of Kfir's first birthday, I'm left simply to pray — that he is alive, that he and his family will soon be returned home safely, and that he will live a long, happy, and prosperous life, so that one day, his time spent in captivity will only represent a fraction of a percent of it.

Let us bring the Bibas family home. #HappyBirthdayKfir pic.twitter.com/UXH6PMewpK
— The Mossad: Satirical, Yet Awesome (@TheMossadIL) January 18, 2024