Yarden Bibas, whose wife and children were murdered by Hamas terrorists, on Sunday discussed for the first time the horrors of captivity in Gaza, speaking to CBS‘s “60 Minutes” along with former hostages Keith Siegel and Tal Shoham.
Bibas said he chose an American news outlet for his first interview because he wanted the White House and U.S. President Donald Trump to hear his plea to bring a stop to the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Israel resumed airstrikes on March 18 after a two-month ceasefire.
“Please stop this war and help bring all the hostages back,” Bibas said.
He described being held in Hamas tunnels during airstrikes. “You’re afraid for your life. The whole earth would move like an earthquake, but underground,” he told “60 Minutes.”
Bibas was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, the day of the Hamas invasion of southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians, and 251 taken hostage, of whom 59 are still held in Gaza, both living and dead.
Bibas remained in captivity for 484 days. He was freed on Feb. 1, having lost 33 pounds. Abducted separately were his wife, Shiri, and two sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months old.
Their terrorist captors subsequently murdered Shiri and the children, and then claimed they had died in an Israeli airstrike.
When Hamas returned the bodies of Kfir, Ariel and, supposedly, Shiri on Feb. 20, it was discovered that the body of Shiri was that of an unidentified woman. Hamas eventually returned Shiri’s body after public pressure.
“They were murdered in cold blood,” Yarden said. “They [his captors] used to tell me, ‘Ah, doesn’t matter. You’ll get a new wife. Get new kids. Better wife, better kids.'”
Bibas’s best friend, David Cunio, whom he has known since the first grade, remains in captivity. Last month, his family said they had received news from a recently released captive that he was alive.
“I lost my wife and kids. Sharon must not lose her husband,” Bibas said of Cunio’s wife. Sharon and her then 3-year-old twin daughters were also kidnapped but they released in November 2023 as part of the first ceasefire deal.
Keith Siegel, 65, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was held by Hamas for 484 days. He said he saw cruel abuse by Hamas terrorists.
“I witnessed a young woman who was being tortured by the terrorist. I mean literal, you know, torture, not just in a figurative sense. They made you watch it. Yeah, I saw sexual assault with female hostages,” he told “60 Minutes.”
Siegel said his situation worsened after his wife, Aviva, was released during the November 2023 ceasefire. “The terrorists became very mean and very cruel and violent,” he said. “They were beating me and starving me.
“They would often eat in front of me and not offer me food,” he said.
For showers, captives were given half a bucket of cold water once a month, with a cup to pour it over themselves.
Their heads and private parts were shaved. Siegel surmised the terrorists did this to amuse themselves. “I felt humiliated,” he said.
Siegel said his spirit was completely broken in captivity. “I felt that I was completely dependent on the terrorists, that my life relied on them, whether they were going to give me food, bring me water, protect me from the mob that would lynch me.
“I was left alone several times, and I was very, very scared that maybe they won’t come back and I’ll be left there,” he said. “Maybe that was a way for them to torture me in that way, in a psychological way, make me think, ‘Okay, should I escape? Should I not escape? Should I try to escape?’ But I’m pretty sure they knew I wouldn’t dare to do that, because I needed them,” he said.
Tal Shoham, 40, spent 471 days in Gaza. He had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri during a family visit. He had seen other hostages in captivity, including Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, best friends who had been kidnapped while attending the Supernova music festival.
The parents of Dalal and David joined Shoham on “60 Minutes.”
Shoham had previously informed the parents that he had seen their children in Gaza. Of Dalal, he said, “One moment he’s partying at the Nova. The second moment he’s in the worst place in the world. And it took him, I think, five or six days just to stop crying, to start to realize that this is the reality now.”
Ilan Dalal, Guy’s father, said, “It’s important for us to know exactly what’s going on with our children.”
On Feb. 22, Hamas published a propaganda video showing Gilboa-Dalal and David at a ceremony for the release of others from captivity in Gaza.
Hamas forced the two men to watch the ceremony from inside a vehicle as hostages Eliya Cohen, 27, Avera Mengistu, 39, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, Omer Shem Tov, 22, Omer Wenkert, 23, and Shoham were released.
“Looking at their scared, frightened faces, begging to come out, wanting to be like their friends who got released, it is very hard to see your son begging for his life, asking to come out,” Dalal’s father told JNS at the time.
Shoham told “60 Minutes” that one of the “toughest things” he heard from the two was when they asked whether they wouldn’t be better off killing themselves to put an end to their suffering.
“They are not children but from time to time I felt like a father,” said Shoham.
“60 Minutes” reported that Shoham and the others “were mostly confined into a narrow tunnel …, beaten every day and made to share minute amounts of pita, rice and water.”
“Sometimes the water tastes like blood, sometimes like iron. Sometimes it was so salty that you could not drink it. But you don’t have anything else,” Shoham said.
“You don’t need too much to stay alive. You can eat only one bread every day, and if have, like, 200 milliliters [~7 oz.] of water every day, you will stay alive,” he added.
Shoham said the hostages found ways to make deals for more food. One terrorist liked back rubs. So in exchange, they would receive food—”different food, meat … a can of tuna … some beans,” he said.
Siegel, who attends vigils and protests on behalf of the remaining hostages, said, “In a way, you’re still there. Your mind is still there.”