‘I turn to you, Mr. Trump’: Open letter from aunt of youngest hostage

Dear President-elect Donald Trump,

My name is Ofri Bibas Levy. While you may not know me personally, you have surely heard of my brother Yarden Bibas, his wife Shiri, and Ariel and Kfir, their two red-headed children who have captured hearts worldwide. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented you with a photo of young Ariel holding his drawing of Batman, with the words “I’m flying and saving people who are stuck in a hole”—just as he and so many others remain trapped today.

These children and their parents lived an ordinary family life—a busy routine of parents with two young children—until they were taken from us more than a year ago. There is still hope: intelligence confirms that more than HALF of the 100 hostages still in captivity are alive, but their time is rapidly running out. My family members are among those we can still save, but only if we act now.

On Oct. 7, 2023, they were violently torn from their daily lives. Yarden, their father, made the heartbreaking choice to separate from his family in a desperate attempt to protect them, but despite his efforts, his young sons Ariel and Kfir were kidnapped along with their mother, Shiri. The footage of their abduction—showing the terrified children clutched in their mother’s arms—became a haunting symbol of Hamas’s cruelty. Two months later, Hamas’s brutality reached new depths when they released a psychological warfare video showing them tormenting Yarden in captivity, cruelly telling him his wife and children were dead—trying to break his spirit.