Israelis bid farewell to Shiri Bibas and her 2 young sons killed in captivity in Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Holding flags, orange balloons and signs saying “forgive us,” tens of thousands of Israelis lined highways as the bodies of a mother and her two young sons, killed in captivity in the Gaza Strip, were taken for burial on Wednesday.

The plight of the Bibas family has come to embody the profound sense of loss and grief still permeating Israel after the militant Hamas group's Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Footage of a terrified Shiri Bibas clutching her two sons — 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel — as they were taken to Gaza by militants is seared into the country's collective memory.

Israel says forensic evidence shows the boys were killed by their captors in November 2023, while Hamas says the family was killed along with their guards in an Israeli airstrike.

Their bodies were handed over earlier this month as part of a ceasefire deal that paused the Israel-Hamas war. Israelis endured another moment of agony when testing showed that one of the bodies returned by Hamas was identified as someone else. Shiri's body was returned the following night and positively identified.

Yarden Bibas was abducted separately and released alive in a different handover last month. His wife and their two children will be buried in a private ceremony near Kibbutz Nir Oz near Gaza, where they were living when they were abducted. The three will be buried next to Shiri’s parents, who were also killed in the attack.

People lined up on the side of the roads as far as the eye could see, sobbing and embracing each other as the casket made their way along the 100-kilometer (60 miles) route from central Israel to the cemetery.

Hundreds of motorcycles, each with an Israeli flag and orange ribbons, rode solemnly behind the convoy. In the city of Tel Aviv, thousands gathered to watch a broadcast of the eulogies, many dressed in orange.

Kfir was the youngest of about 30 children taken hostage. The infant, with red hair and a toothless smile, quickly became well-known across Israel. His ordeal was raised by Israeli leaders on podiums around the world.

The extended Bibas family has been active at protests, branding the color orange as the symbol of their fight for the “ginger babies.” They marked Kfir Bibas’ first birthday with a release of orange balloons and lobbied world leaders for support.

Family photos aired on TV and posted on social media created a national bond with the two boys and made them familiar faces.

Israelis learned of Ariel Bibas’ love for Batman. Photos from a happier time showed the entire family dressed up as the character.

On Wednesday, many people dressed up in Batman costumes and saluted as the caskets passed.

Yarden Bibas eulogized his family.

“Do you remember our last conversation together? In the safe room, I asked if we should fight or surrender. You said fight, so I fought,” he sad, speaking directly to his wife. “Shiri, I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you all. If only I had known what would happen, I wouldn’t have fought.”

Then he spoke of his elder son, Ariel: “I hope you know I thought about you every day, every minute.”

“I’m sure you’re making all the angels laugh with your silly jokes and impressions," he added, envisioning the boy in paradise. "I hope there are plenty of butterflies for you to watch, just like you did during our picnics.”

He also addressed his youngest son. “Kfir, I’m sorry I didn’t protect you better,” he said. “I miss nibbling on you and hearing your laughter.”

Dana Silberman Sitton, Shiri's sister, said she had tried to prepare herself for over a year to bury her sister alongside their parents, but the moment was still overwhelming.

She begged people to remember Shiri full of light and laughter — not just the photo of her terror-stricken face as she was being kidnapped.

She also asked forgiveness on behalf of Israel’s government and military because it had taken so long to bring them home.

Yarden's sister, Ofri Bibas Levy, one of the most active voices in the fight to bring the hostages home, said “our disaster as a nation and as a family should not have happened, and must never happen again.”

“Forgiveness means accepting responsibility," she said. "There is no meaning to forgiveness before the failures are investigated, and all officials take responsibility.”

During the release of the bodies in Gaza last week, Hamas militants displayed coffins on a stage labeled with Shiri’s name and those of her two boys as upbeat music blared. Behind them hung a panel where their pictures hovered beneath a cartoon of a vampiric-looking Netanyahu.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the delayed release of Shiri’s remains a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire agreement.

Some 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war in Gaza and 251 were taken hostage. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.

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