Today will be a dark, wrenching day in Israel. The country will bury three people; despite having never met them, we have become like close family over the last 16 months.
The funerals of Shiri Bibas and her two young children, Kfir and Ariel, will take place in Zohar, near their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. The symbols of the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, which are still being perpetrated today on the remaining hostages in Gaza, the Bibas family, have entered the hearts of all Israelis.
The Bibas story captivated the hearts and minds of the country – from their initial abduction to the months of hopeful prayer over their fate to Shiri’s husband Yarden’s release on February 1.
We all felt his anguish when he was told that his wife and children had been murdered, and we all felt our blood boil over the grotesque Hamas ceremonies turning over their bodies to the Red Cross and then the final inhumane act of withholding Shiri’s return and sending an anonymous body.
Tens of thousands of mourners would have likely shown up at Wednesday’s funeral to pay their respects. Therefore, the family announced that the funeral will be held privately. But in deference to the magnitude at which the country has attached itself to the family’s fate, allowances have been made so that we can participate and support each other and the family.
Eulogies will be broadcast online and on TV, and the family announced the procession route so citizens can come out and pay respects along the roadsides.
“The warm embrace, the love, and the strength that you have sent us from all over Israel and the world strengthen us and accompany us during these moments of crisis,” the family shared on social media.
“We are aware that many of you want to be there, to pay your respects, to express your love, and to say your goodbyes together with us. Please respect our choice to say our goodbyes during these final moments in the way that is right for us.”
Turning to the streets
Israelis will undoubtedly turn out by the thousands on the streets to pay their respects while even more will watch the funeral, as we close a devastating chapter in the tragedy that has befallen so many Israeli families because of October 7.
We feel the visceral need to bid farewell to those adorable children and their brave mother, whose image of valiantly defending her children against Hamas terrorists is indelibly seared into our souls.
But it’s worth remembering that as heartbreaking as the Bibas’s story is, it’s only one of dozens that emerged on October 7 of other families massacred and killed in front of each other.
What befell the Bibas’s also befell Kfar Aza residents Hadar and Itay Berdichevsky, who were murdered in their home but were able to save their 10-month-old twins. Or the Kutz family – Aviv (54), Livnat (49), Rotem (19), Yonatan (17), and Yiftach (15) Kutz – who were murdered in their Kibbutz Aza home on October 7 and found in a family embrace.
We focus on the Bibas tragedy because of the children’s ages and the foggy uncertainty over their fate that the country had lived with over the last year and a half until the dreaded eventuality proved to be true – Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were murdered in Hamas captivity.
Their funeral today will provide closure to this particular tragic chapter of October 7, but for the hostages who remain in Gaza, the book is still open and rapidly closing.
The footage of Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal – the two hostages who were cruelly forced last Saturday to watch the release of two of their fellow hostages – was alone proof as to the urgency of progressing to phase 2 of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Idit Ohel, the mother of another hostage, Alon Ohel, told Channel 12 that released hostages told her that her son was being held in chains in a Hamas tunnel with very little food while suffering from multiple untreated injuries from October 7.
It’s imperative for them, and all the other hostages, both living and dead, to come home.
As we bury the Bibas’s, let’s heed the words of released hostage Agam Berger, who said on Tuesday: “Don’t stop until the last hostage. Both the living and the dead must be returned to burial because that’s what they deserve.”