Hostage Families call on UNICEF to protect Israeli children captive in Gaza
The families of Israeli hostages reached out to UNICEF in a bid to gain the release of two children still being held in Gaza.
Israelis rally in Tel Aviv on Jan. 18, 2024 to mark the first birthday of Kfir Bibas, the youngest hostage held in Gaza. Kfir, his four-year-old brother Ariel, and their mother were supposed to be released during a temporary ceasefirein November 2023. Photo by Gideon Markowicz/TPS
In a letter to Ted Chaiban, Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Professor Aron Troen, a public health expert and member of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, urged the agency to uphold its mandate of protecting children by advocating for the immediate release of child hostages.
Among the 101 hostages being held by Hamas are five-year-old Ariel Bibas and one-year-old brother, Kfir, who were taken captive with their parents, Yarden and Shiri from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
“UNICEF’s raison d’être is to protect the welfare of children everywhere… Yet, they have been largely ineffectual and passive in protecting the human rights of Israeli children,” Troen told The Press Service of Israel. He stressed that three million Israeli children are suffering from the effects of the ongoing conflict, many of whom are displaced, living under the constant threat of rocket attacks, or dealing with trauma.
Tomer Keshet, a cousin of Yarden Bibas, recounted to TPS-IL a meeting with UNICEF representatives, including Director Catherine Russell, in Jerusalem on April 15.
“We told her in detail about the day they were kidnapped, about the family, the kids. We want them not to be just numbers on a list, but real people,” Keshet recalled.
“Ariel looks shy but has the energy of a red-haired kid. And Kfir was so tiny when we last saw him, and by now he has spent more time in captivity than living as a free man.”
Russell tweeted of that meeting that the families “shared devastating accounts of captivity, loss & heartbreak,” adding “All the hostages must be released immediately.”
The tweet, Keshet told TPS-IL, was “a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough.”
“We need international organizations, including UNICEF, to reach them there, in Gaza, to check on them, to take care of them. The kids cannot spend almost a year in a tunnel. They cannot.”
The Bibas children were last seen in a video filmed by Hamas showing Shiri Bibas holding Ariel and Kfir in her arms covered by a blanket and surrounded by armed terrorists.
In late November, 110 Israelis and foreign nationals were released as part of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, including 37 Israelis who were 18 or younger. While most of the women and children were freed, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were not among those returned. Hamas claimed the Bibas children and their mother were dead but never provided evidence.
After the hostages were freed, Israel denounced Hamas for branding brothers Yigal and Or Yaakov, ages 12 and 16 respectively, with a motorcycle exhaust pipe to prevent their escape, and drugging the children when moving hostages from one location to another.
Troen’s letter criticized The International Committee of the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations for not visiting Israeli child hostages even once to ascertain their conditions, noting, “This appalling failure to address their fundamental human rights and health needs has had disastrous consequences.”
The letter also raised the situation of other Israeli children who lost their parents. For example, Troen’s nephew, 16-year-old Rotem Mathias, was shot during Hamas’s attack on Kibbutz Holit on October 7. While Rotem survived, his parents did not.
Troen also denounced UNICEF’s imbalanced criticism of Israel.
“We frequently see statements and reports regarding the suffering of civilians and children in Gaza, but we don’t see the same urgency for the hostages or the three million children in Israel enduring this protracted war,” he told TPS-IL. This imbalance, Troen said, has created “a profound sense of neglect and frustration in Israel.”
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
