By Patricia Martínez Sastre
Nir Oz, Israel, Jan 18 (EFE).- Baby Kfir Bibas, born in the Nir Oz Kibbutz in southern Israel – located less than two kilometers from the Gaza Strip – turned one on Thursday.
The kibbutz was the scene of a massacre on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants launched a surprise attack that triggered the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The residents of the Nir Oz demand only one thing: that the Israeli government prioritizes the lives of the 136 hostages still being held by Hamas – including baby Kfir – over the war.
In January, a video released by Hamas announced the deaths of two more hostages, which it attributed to heavy Israeli fire.
The deaths, confirmed by Israeli authorities on Wednesday, bring the number of hostages believed dead inside the enclave to 27.
Yosi Shnaider wears a T-shirt with the faces of her Argentinian-Israeli cousin Shiri Bibas, her husband Yarden, and their two red-haired children, Kfir and Ariel, ages one and four, respectively.
They are the only minors still in captivity after the hostage exchange for Palestinian prisoners that took place during a week-long cease-fire at the end of November.
Shnaider clings to the belief that all four are still alive and admits to EFE that he feels “disappointed” with the Israeli government.
“If they declare that the first thing is to kill Yahya Sinwar (Hamas leader in Gaza), then destroy Hamas, and then bring back the kidnapped people, that means we are the least of their targets,” Shnaider said.
“We have to be first on the list. Kfir must be first on the list,” he adds.
Hamas’ armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Nov. 29 that Shiri Silberman Bibas, 32, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir, had been killed in an Israeli army bombardment of the Gaza Strip, but provided no evidence.
In Nir Oz, little or nothing has changed since Oct. 7, when Islamist militants stormed in with guns blazing, killing 40 of the kibbutz’s residents and kidnapping 77, more than half of whom are still in captivity.
The entrance to the communal kitchen and dining room remains littered with broken glass, bullet shrapnel holes in the doors, and burned or destroyed homes.
“It’s like a bad movie,” Ravit Cooper, daughter of Amiram, 85, – one of the founding members of the kibbutz, who is still being held by Hamas –, tells EFE.
“We know every tree, every plant, every house, we grew up here,” Cooper adds.
Meanwhile, a little more than a kilometer away, Israeli tanks and aircraft continue their assault on Gaza. A new day of bombings, where food, drinking water, shelter, medicines, and anesthetics to amputate wounded limbs are scarce.
Despite the constant drone of Israeli fighter jets, empathy for people in Gaza has vanished in this once-liberal community, where no one talks about a shared future with Palestinians.
“What I want now is absolute separation,” says Srulik Kalvo, Ravit’s brother, who also believes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government are not doing enough to free his people.
For analysts such as Amos Harel of the liberal daily Haaretz, the two priorities – destroying Hamas and returning the hostages – not only “clash, but are not in sync”.
While the government claims that only military pressure can force the Islamists to negotiate their release, no talks have been held since November.
Netanyahu’s political survival hangs on the first objective, with a war cabinet made up of ultra-nationalist ministers opposed to any kind of ceasefire, let alone a mass release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the hostages.
Like others, Shanider struggles to understand that, despite decades of nurturing Israel’s desert south, enduring the wail of sirens, and seeking refuge in bunkers during past outbreaks of violence, there is now only stagnation.
“It’s a lifetime for a baby,” he says of Kfir and his three and a half months in captivity. “A lifetime.” EFE
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