As Ariel Bibas turns five today all his grandmother wants is to give him piggyback rides and watch him play in her garden.
But it has been nearly 10 months since Pnina Bibas has heard from her sweet, sensitive grandson who adores the kumquat trees that blossom around his birthday.
She will not see him today, either, because on October 7 terrorists stormed his home, shot his dog, and kidnapped him into Gaza.
The little boy who loves Batman was last seen in Israel desperately clinging to his mother, Shiri, 33, alongside his then nine-month-old brother, Kfir, as they were led away.
Besides some footage of their first few hours in captivity and a cruel hostage video of his father, Yarden, 37, who is held separately, there has been no word.
Today, Pnina, 64, pens a deeply moving open letter to her ‘dear Luli’ to wish him happy birthday, and asks: ‘Can you feel our longing, the immense love that fills our hearts?’
She also shares touching family photographs of her hugging and playing with her adored first grandson before their family’s nightmare began.
‘Nine months have passed since you were taken from us by bad people,’ she writes in the Daily Mail. ‘Nine months of tears, prayers, and unwavering hope.
‘The world around us continues to turn, but time seems to have frozen without you. You’ve grown a year older, but there’s no celebration.’
She asks if he ‘even knows that his big day is approaching’, continuing: ‘My heart skips a beat every time I remember how much you’re missed.
‘I try to imagine the moment you’ll return to us. Will you still call me ‘Grandma Nini’? Will you still want to play ‘piggyback’?
‘I can almost hear your laughter as you splash water on me while we water the plants in the garden.’
Before October 7 Pnina lived in Kibbutz Tze’elim, near Ariel’s Kibbutz of Nir Oz in southern Israel. She has now moved in near family in the north of the country but is still reminded of her red-haired grandson every day.
‘The kumquat tree you love so much has blossomed again, its branches filled with tiny orange fruits,’ she tells him. ‘I see them and remember your small hands, eager to pick and taste them.’
Only recently, Pnina saw a loquat tree near his old house filled with fruit and imagined Ariel ‘running to your mum, so proud of what you’ve picked.’
She tells her grandson that each time she reads stories to his cousin ‘my eyes search for you’ hoping to ‘find you sitting beside her’ with that ‘shy, sweet smile’.
Pnina also wrestles with how, somehow, she must explain to him the horrors that have befallen their family.
Ariel’s beloved maternal grandparents, Margit Silberman, 63, and husband Yossi, 67, who lived in his kibbutz, were among the 1,200 Israelis slaughtered by Hamas that day. The terrorists beheaded their dog and torched their home.
‘Luli, so much has changed in the last year,’ she tells him, tenderly. ‘Instead of celebrating all the new things you’ve learned, we’re dealing with an absence – of you, of your mum and dad, and of little Fir Fir.
‘We’re also in the shadow of a terrible loss. Grandpa Yossi and Grandma Margit are no longer with us, and how will you react when you learn this news?’
Relatives do not truly know if Ariel is still alive. Hamas released perhaps one of their cruellest hostage videos in November, showing his father, Yarden, sobbing as they claimed his family had all been killed in an Israeli air strike.
But the terror group has repeatedly lied that captives have died and the IDF has not confirmed their deaths leaving Pnina to ‘never stop hoping’.
‘Every day I dream of the moment we’ll be together again,’ she writes.
‘I imagine the excitement, the tears, the hugs. I see you shouting ‘Grandma Nini!’ and little Kfir, who might not remember me anymore, smiling at me with a big grin.’
Agonisingly, she says her grandson feels ‘so close yet so far away’ and she prays for ‘the greatest gift’ of his family’s return.
Finishing the letter, she says: ‘Until then, Luli, know that you are loved, that we think of you every moment. And one day, we’ll celebrate all the birthdays we’ve missed, together.’
The Bibas family have shared a video of Ariel blowing out the candles on his birthday cake last year to mark him turning five.
Supporters will join them marching to Hostage Square in Tel Aviv today for a special event where Pnina will read out this letter to her Luli.
There are 115 hostages remaining in Gaza.
My dear Luli,
Happy birthday to my first grandchild. You’re five years old! Five years… Do you even know that this big day is approaching?
Can you feel our longing, the immense love that fills our hearts?
Over nine months have passed since you were taken from us by bad people. Nine months of tears, prayers, and unwavering hope. The world around us continues to turn, but time seems to have frozen without you. You’ve grown a year older, but there’s no celebration.
The kumquat tree you love so much has blossomed again, its branches filled with tiny orange fruits. I see them and remember your small hands, eager to pick and taste them. The loquat tree near your home has also borne fruit, orange ones, and I can imagine you running to your mum, so proud of what you’ve picked.
When I read a story to your cousin Toto, my eyes search for you. As if looking hard enough would find you sitting beside her, listening intently and smiling your shy, sweet smile. My heart skips a beat every time I remember how much you’re missed.
I try to imagine the moment you’ll return to us. Will you still call me ‘Grandma Nini’? Will you still want to play ‘piggyback’? I can almost hear your laughter as you splash water on me while we water the plants in the garden.
Luli, so much has changed in the last year. Instead of celebrating all the new things you’ve learned, we’re dealing with an absence – of you, of your mum and dad, and of little Fir Fir. We’re also in the shadow of a terrible loss. Grandpa Yossi and Grandma Margit are no longer with us, and how will you react when you learn this news?
But we never stop hoping. Every day I dream of the moment we’ll be together again. I imagine the excitement, the tears, the hugs. I see you shouting ‘Grandma Nini!’ and little Kfir, who might not remember me anymore, smiling at me with a big grin.
My dear Luli, you’re so close yet so far away. I pray that soon we’ll receive the greatest gift – to hug you and the whole family again. I’m waiting for this dream to become reality.
Until then, Luli, know that you are loved, that we think of you every moment. And one day, we’ll celebrate all the birthdays we’ve missed, together.
Love, Pnini