Hundreds of Israelis sent orange balloons into the air Monday to mark the fifth birthday of one of two children held captive by militants in the Gaza Strip. Ariel Bibas, along with his 1-year-old brother Kfir, has become a symbol of the struggle to release the hostages. The orange balloons are meant to symbolize the boys' bright red hair, the AP reports. During its Oct. 7 attack, Hamas killed 1,200 people and took some 250 hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Among the 110 still held, the Bibas boys are said to be the only children.
Israeli authorities say more than a third of the remaining hostages are no longer alive, though Israel does not consider the Bibas boys to be part of that tally. Relatives said they were stunned to be marking the birthday while Ariel was still in captivity, 304 days after he was kidnapped. Ariel, Kfir, and their parents, Shiri and Yarden Bibas, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. Video of the kidnapping, showing their mother swaddling the two boys in a blanket and being whisked away by armed men, ricocheted around the world in the hours after the attack.
In January, family members marked what they dubbed "the saddest birthday in the world" as Kfir turned a year old. On Monday, hundreds of supporters marched in Tel Aviv with photos of Ariel wearing Batman costumes. He loved all of the superheroes, and Batman especially, said a relative, Jimmy Miller. He showed a picture of a beaming Ariel at his nursery school before his kidnapping, with a photo he'd drawn of the Batman symbol. "Instead of watching Ariel running in the fields with his Batman cape and celebrating with his friends in the nursery school," said Miller, "he's probably in some tunnel from Hamas surrounded by enemies who yell at him if he raises his voice."
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