The three members of the Bibas family still in Gaza—mother Shiri, baby Kfir and his brother Ariel—have been named as being among the four bodies set to be returned to Israel on Thursday, all but dashing the hopes many around the world have held since their abduction on Oct. 7, 2023.
Final forensics analysis will be carried out on the remains once Hamas hands them over, and the Bibas family has urged Israelis to wait until their identities are confirmed before beginning the mourning period.
Shiri’s husband, Yarden Bibas, was freed on Feb. 1 after 484 days in Hamas captivity.
The video of Shiri’s kidnapping—trying to protect her two children with her arms and fear written on her face as she was surrounded by masked men with weapons—became a symbol of the Oct, 7 massacre. Shiri’s parents, Yossi and Margit Silberman, were also murdered that day.
Last year, Hamas claimed Shiri and the children had been killed by Israeli Defense Forces fire in Gaza.
‘It feels like the end’
On Oct. 7, terrorists overtook Kibbutz Nir Oz. They breached the Bibas family home’s door using a drill and equipment they had brought with them, and entered the safe room where the four were hiding. Yarden reported the attack to his wider family in real-time, writing that “it feels like the end.”
He attempted to defend the family with his personal weapon but was overwhelmed. In photos, he can be seen on a motorcycle between two terrorists, wounded and bleeding from his head, with one of the terrorists holding a blood-stained hammer.
The family dog, Tony, was also killed during the attack.
More than a year later—on the morning of the second prisoner release under phase one of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire—the Bibas family wrote on social media of the difficult days ahead.
“Morning 477. Again last night our souls found no rest. Yesterday at 16:00, when the list of those designated for release was published—our world collapsed. Although they prepared us for this, we hoped to see Shiri and the children on the list, which was supposed to be a list of civilian women,” they wrote.
“In the evening, when we turned on the news, our pain, our struggle, and especially the crucial discourse about the complexity and tragedy of them not being on the list disappeared from the broadcasters’ lips in the studios. Does the grave concern for their lives negate the fact that they are civilians in captivity who need to return home? Does the grave concern for their lives negate the fact that the state is obligated in this deal to give us certainty? Does the grave concern for Shiri’s life mean there is no longer a need to show her picture as a civilian kidnapped in Gaza whose fate is unknown? The answer is no.”
