Poignant images of an anguished Shiri Bibas clutching her two red-headed boys as she was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 have turned her into the face of the Israeli hostages seized that day.

But friends and relatives of the 32-year-old say the unassuming woman they know and love would have been ill-at-ease at being thrust into the spotlight, in footage shot and aired by Hamas militants.

Five months later, Bibas's fate and those of her baby boy and young son remain unclear.

"If she knew she was so well-known, it would be very hard for her. She is a very reserved person," said Dalit Ram Aharon, one of her best friends and a fellow resident of Nir Oz kibbutz, where around 100 people were killed or abducted.

The only news to date of Bibas and her children, four-year-old Ariel and now one-year-old Kfir, has not been verified. Israel has not confirmed an announcement by Hamas that the three of them were killed in Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip.

Bibas's husband and the boys' father, 34-year-old Yarden Bibas, was also among the roughly 250 hostages abducted by the Palestinian militants.

He is being........

© Al Monitor