The people of Israel embraced them on their last trip, emerging in multitude along the funeral course for a family that had become emblematic of the country’s trauma after 7 October 2023, attack.
Shiri Bibas and his two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were kidnapped during the attack led by Hamas to the southern Israel, brought to Gaza and killed in captivity, according to the Israeli authorities. On Wednesday, in the midst of a national outburst of solidarity and pain, they were buried under a blue sky, not far from the border community where they had lived and from which they were seized.
Through 16 months of fear and uncertainty about their destinies, the Bibas had become a symbol for many Israelis, both from the tragedy that meant that their country that day in October, when about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 kidnapped in Gaza , but also of a widespread sense of abandonment. The military had not come to their rescue and the government was unable to bring them and many other hostages, at home in time.
Mrs. Bibas was 32 years old when she was kidnapped. Ariel was 4 years old and Kfir, the youngest hostage, was not even nine months old. Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the father of the two Red boys, were kidnapped separately during the attack, who sparked the 15 -month war of Israel in Gaza who killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left most of the ruined encycling .
Mr. Bibas was returned to Israel in life at the beginning of this month as part of an agreement of ceased fire for Gaza. The remains of Mrs. Bibas and children were returned to Israel last week. After the forensic tests, the main pathologist of Israel rejected Hamas’ claims to have been killed in an Israeli air attack, although no test has been made public, in line with the family privacy request.
Eologating his family, Mr. Bibas apologized for not being able to protect them. “Ariel, I hope you are not angry with me for not having protected you correctly and not to be there for you,” he said, adding, “Kfir, I’m sorry I haven’t protected you better.”
“Shiri, everyone knows us and love us – you cannot imagine how surreal all this madness is,” he said. He added: “This is the closest to you since October 7th and I can’t kiss you or hug you”.
Ofri Bibas, Yarden Bibas’s sister, touched popular anger and demand for the government to allow an independent investigation into the failures of October 7 and accept responsibility.
“There is no meaning for forgiveness before failures and all officials are assumed to be assumed responsibility,” he said in his praise. “Our disaster as a nation and as a family should not have happened and never had to happen again.”
Government officials were asked to stay away from private burial. A few days ago, Ofri Bbas criticized the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for not having apologized to the family.
The crowds also gathered in a central square in Tel Aviv now known as Hostage Square to look at a live streaming of the praise on a big screen. Some people were wrapped in Israeli flags. Some wore orange to remember children with red hair. Others held orange balloons at the top, then they released them into the sky.
Maia Szryftman, 53 years old, had come from Nahariya, on the northern border of Israel, to express support for the family and be part of the public outburst. “The heart hurts for the two children, for the whole family,” he said.
Yael Koren, 44, said he had come to the square “for human being”.
“I think being together makes us stronger,” he said.
He showed an image on his cell phone of a photo that his son, almost 7, had designed a boy who had been kidnapped. He said that the school of his children had sent the memo at home on how to answer their questions about Bibas children.
“But you can’t explain it,” he said.