Slain Israeli hostage Shiri Bibas and her two young boys Ariel and Kfir were buried together in a single casket during a heartbreaking funeral on Wednesday in which hundreds of people turned out to mourn.
Hundreds gathered near the family’s home in the destroyed Kibbutz Nir Oz, where they were kidnapped during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, to bid farewell to the loving mother and the two youngest hostages, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, who was just nine months old.
“They will remain together and close, just as Shiri enveloped the children, always, including on that accursed day,” said Carmit Palty Katzir, per a Times of Israel translation.
Katzir referenced the haunting video spread by Hamas following the terror attack in which a terrified Shiri clutched her sons close to her chest as the terrorists dragged them from their home.
Although the funeral was private, thousands lined the roads from the kibbutz to the Tsoher Regional Cemetery to see the family off to their final resting place.
Grieving husband and father Yarden Bibas, who was taken hostage but freed earlier this month, broke down as he commented that the funeral was the closest he has been to his family since the terror attack 16 months ago.
“Shiri, this is the closest I’ve been to you since October 7th, and I can’t kiss or hug you, and it’s breaking me!” the sobbing husband said.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you all,” he added.
Dana Silberman-Sitton, Shiri’s sister, mourned the loss, noting that Hamas had taken three generations of her family as her parents were murdered by the terror group on Oct. 7, 2023.
Silberman-Sitton said it was especially tragic that Kfir was taken at such a young age before he could understand what was happening around him.
He never celebrated a birthday in freedom.
“Sadly, I only had 9 months to cherish you,” the grieving aunt lamented. “It wasn’t difficult to fall in love with you immediately. Smiling and pure, and a redhead too — you didn’t disappoint.”
Hamas released the bodies of the two young boys last Thursday, with Shiri released the following day after the terrorist claimed an “error” caused them to send the body of a Palestinian woman in the mother’s place.
Israeli forensic experts then assessed that the three hostages did not appear to be killed by an airstrike, as Hamas has repeatedly claimed.
Military officials ultimately claimed the boys were “brutally” killed by Hamas with their bare hands, but did not provide further details.
The incident caused an international uproar, with Israel refusing to free the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who were meant to be exchanged for the hostages’ bodies.
Hamas has since agreed to Israel’s latest demands to free the bodies of the remaining four hostages listed in the first phase of the cease-fire, this time without the public parades that had marked the previous exchanges.
