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Hamas on February 1 released three Israeli hostages in the fourth exchange of the ceasefire deal.
Israeli hostage Ofer Kalderon reunites with his children at Sheba hospital in Ramat Gan. (IMAGE: AFP)
An emotional Ofer Calderon told his children that they were his life and that he never gave up during his time in Hamas captivity in Gaza as he embraced them Saturday after his release.
Calderon, like Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas, returned home after spending 484 days in Hamas captivity after they were kidnapped during the October 7 attacks in 2023.
Their pictures were everywhere on Saturday at “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv as the three Israeli captives were released by Gaza militants.
Sighs of relief ran through onlookers gathered to watch a live transmission of the three being handed over to the Red Cross in the Palestinian territory before being brought home to Israel.
“It’s a good feeling, it makes us stronger,” Miki Pnini, a 67-year-old Israeli from the outlying suburb of Pardesiya west of Tel Aviv, told AFP.
Pnini noted with satisfaction that “Ofer is on his legs, we can’t believe it after all he went through”.
Kalderon is a dual French-Israeli national, and Paris’s ambassador to Israel, Frederic Journes, allowed himself a smile on Saturday as Kalderon was freed.
Emotions were also running high when Yarden Bibas was reunited with his family. The Bibas household, despite the return of Yarden, was concerned about another half of the family – Yarden’s wife Shiri and his sons, Kfir, the youngest hostage, whose second birthday fell in January, and his older brother Ariel, whose fifth birthday was in August.
The Israeli prime minister’s official X account posted the video of Yarden reuniting with his loved ones.
Two visibly emotional men and two women wore orange, the colour associated with the Bibas family.
Hamas has said his wife and sons were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, but Israel has not confirmed their deaths.
Yarden Bibas is now on Hamas’ stage, forced to wave.Yarden was kidnapped with his family from the Nir Oz kibbutz: 9-month-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel, and 32-year-old Shiri.
Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel are still being held hostage in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/zpXzjdixzn
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) February 1, 2025
Meanwhile, the ceremonies staged by Hamas and fellow Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad for the hostage handovers have been widely criticised in Israel.
Hamas has made them mount platforms draped with anti-Israel slogans and photos of slain militant leaders, instructing them to wave for the cameras and pose with gift bags from the Islamist movement.
The mobile phone case of one woman near the television screens in the Tel Aviv square on Saturday made her feelings quite clear: “Keep calm and Fuck Hamas,” it read.
- Location :
Tel Aviv, Israel
