Amid the ceasefire and hostage negotiations in Cairo on Wednesday, families of Israeli hostages are hoping that a deal can be reached to release the 134 Israelis being held by Hamas.

The White House Middle East advisor, Brett McGurk, scheduled visits to Egypt on Wednesday and Israel on Thursday to help close a hostage deal alongside an extended pause to the war. 

For relatives of the Bibas family, the waiting has taken a desperate turn. 

New videos obtained by IDF forces of the Hamas terrorists’ abduction of the Bibas family from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 were released on Monday. Footage from street cameras in the area of Khan Yunis in Gaza show the mother, Shiri Bibas, and her two young red-headed children standing and wrapped in a blanket, alive on a street in southern Gaza on October 7. A Hamas propaganda video back in November appeared to show the father Yarden Bibas alive.

The IDF made the four-month old videos public with the consent of the Bibas family on Monday.

“We agreed to publish this video so that the world won’t forget or look away; this cannot in any way be made a routine, a normal situation for 134 civilians to be held captive in Gaza in the hands of a terror organization,” said Ofri Bibas-Levy, Yarden’s sister, on Tuesday during a news conference. 

According to an IDF spokesman, Daniel Hagari, the footage shows Hamas terrorists wrapping Shiri and her children in a sheet, trying to hide them. Ariel was four and Kfir was 8 months-old at the time of their abduction. “You can see little Ariel’s ginger hair poking through a white sheet,” said Mr. Hagari of the four-month old video.

At the end of November, Hamas claimed that Shiri and her two children were not alive, but did not publish proof of this.

“It’s been a hell of 24 hours for us and the last four months has taken its toll. We are telling our story over and over. Sometimes we feel that there is a problem, that our children are maybe less important,” said Yifat Zailer, a cousin of Siri Bibas. 

“We had to celebrate Kfir’s birthday without him. I’m worried sick about them. We never received any sign of life. We know that they didn’t receive their medicines,” commented Ms. Zailer during the news conference. 

“This video reminds us and the world that they were taken from their beds,” Ms. Zailer said in a breaking voice. “You can see my youngest cousin, Siri, in that video barefoot, surrounded by men. I believe in humanity but watching that video, there is nothing humane about it,” Ms. Zailer said. 

“We never thought that this [release] would take so long,” added Aylon Keshet, a cousin of Yarden Bibas. “We thought it would be a matter of weeks.”