
“Wave your hand,” orders the terrorist with the hand free from the Kalashnikov, and Yarden waves it. It is the last act of submission to the militiamen surrounding the stage onto which they have hoisted him. They also ordered him to smile, as they did for previous releases, but even slavery has its limits: Yarden Bibas, 35, cannot smile—not even the little that the other two released yesterday, Ofer Calderon and Keith Siegel, managed to do with a corner of their mouths. Yarden will carry with him forever the dark cave in which he has been imprisoned since October 7, when, in the kibbutz of Nir Oz, with its 400 inhabitants, he, his wife Shiri, their 9-month-old baby Kfir, and 4-year-old Ariel—the children with the brightest hair in the world—were kidnapped. They were taken separately; Yarden was wounded in the head. Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel, wrapped in a blanket, were kidnapped on a motorcycle, Shiri’s face twisted in terror, taken away while Yarden fought desperately against the barbaric invasion. Then he was also kidnapped. The Israeli public saw an image of him standing in front of a shack where Shiri and the children were placed before disappearing forever. A cruel video shows Yarden in tears; since then, it has been suspected—without Israel ever confirming it—that the massacre had occurred. Alongside Yarden on stage, Hamas first brought up Ofer Calderon and, at the end, Keith Siegel: the stage, decorated with inscriptions (“Zionism equals Nazism”), had, undeservedly, the blue sea as a backdrop; the stage was surrounded only by Hamas’s henchmen, and the flags were only theirs; in the distance, the frenzied crowd, foaming with hatred, which the day before had almost lynched young Arbel Yehoud as she was returned, squeezed between two rows of people. In Khan Younis, it was evident how Hamas, weak and leaderless, can make fatal mistakes in this critical second phase. Its definition begins tomorrow, while Netanyahu flies to meet Trump. The savage anti-Semitic aggression combined with violence against women has brought back to light the meaning of the rapes of October 7, ordered by Sinwar, and Netanyahu had blocked the delivery of prisoners for exchange, which then resumed as Hamas readjusted. Netanyahu departs even more convinced that any solution must expel Hamas from Gaza.”