He’s coming home. 

On Friday, a spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigade of Hamas announced the names of the next three hostages it plans to release as part of a ceasefire agreement with the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Among them is Yarden Bibas, 35, whose wife Shiri and children Kfir and Ariel are each Argentine. 

All four were kidnapped from the Nir Or kibbutz on October 7, 2023. Hamas subsequently announced that Bibas’ family was killed during an Israeli airstrike, although the Israeli government has declined to confirm this version of events and the family’s status remains unknown. Bibas was reportedly injured after being shot in the head during his capture.

The other hostages scheduled for release are Ofer Kalderon, 54, and Keith Siegel, 65, who hails from the United States.

Last week, after first learning which hostages Hamas planned to free, Bibas’ extended family released a statement that was later disseminated on X. 

“Yesterday [Friday, January 24], when the list of those intended to be released was published, our world collapsed. Despite having prepared for this, we had hoped to see Shiri and the children on the list that was meant to be with female civilians,” it read.

“In the evening, when we turned on the news, our pain, our fight, and mainly the extremely important discussion over the complexity and the disaster that they are not on the list was completely ignored by the broadcasters in the studios,” the statement continued. “Does the serious concern over their lives annul the fact that they are civilians in captivity who need to return home? Does the serious concern over their lives annul the fact that the state is obligated to provide us with certainty in this deal? Does the serious concern over Shiri’s life mean that there is no longer a need to put her photo as a civilian kidnapped in Gaza whose fate is unknown?”

“Shiri, Yarden, Ariel, and Kfir, we will continue to hope [for] and demand your release. It isn’t over until it’s over.”

Kfir Bibas, who was nine months old at the time of his capture, is the youngest of the 251 Israelis held hostage. At least 20 of those were Argentine citizens. 

Hamas killed an estimated 1200 Israelis on October 7, 2023. In the ensuing war, Israeli Defense Forces have killed at least 46,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.