{"id":44520,"date":"2025-02-26T13:52:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T18:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/at-funeral-for-shiri-bibas-and-children-an-israeli-outpouring-of-grief\/26\/02\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:52:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T18:52:26","slug":"at-funeral-for-shiri-bibas-and-children-an-israeli-outpouring-of-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/at-funeral-for-shiri-bibas-and-children-an-israeli-outpouring-of-grief\/26\/02\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"At Funeral for Shiri Bibas and Children, an Israeli Outpouring of Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The people of Israel embraced them on their final journey, turning out in multitudes along the funeral route for a family that had become <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/31\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hostage-release-hamas-yarden-bibas.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">emblematic of the country\u2019s trauma<\/a> after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, were kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, taken to Gaza, and killed in captivity, according to the Israeli authorities. On Wednesday, amid a national outpouring of solidarity and grief, they were buried under a blue sky, not far from the border community where they had lived and from which they were seized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Through 16 months of fear and uncertainty over their fates, the Bibases had become a symbol for many Israelis, both of the tragedy that befell their country that October day, when about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 abducted to Gaza, but also of a widespread sense of abandonment. The military had failed to come to their rescue and the government failed to bring them, and many other hostages, home in time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Bibas was 32 when she was abducted. Ariel was 4, and Kfir, the youngest hostage, was not even nine months old. Yarden Bibas, Shiri\u2019s husband and the father of the two redheaded boys, was abducted separately during the attack, which set off Israel\u2019s 15-month war in Gaza that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left much of the enclave in ruins.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bibas <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/18\/world\/middleeast\/hamas-hostages-remains.html\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">was returned to Israel<\/a> alive early this month as part of a cease-fire deal for Gaza. The remains of Ms. Bibas and the children were returned to Israel last week. After forensic testing, Israel\u2019s chief pathologist dismissed Hamas\u2019s claims that they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, though no evidence has been made public, in line with the family\u2019s request for privacy. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Eulogizing his family, Mr. Bibas apologized for not managing to protect them. \u201cAriel, I hope you\u2019re not angry with me for failing to protect you properly and for not being there for you,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cKfir, I\u2019m sorry I didn\u2019t protect you better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cShiri, everyone knows and love us \u2014 you can\u2019t imagine how surreal all this madness is,\u201d he said. He added, \u201cThis is the closest I\u2019ve been to you since Oct. 7, and I can\u2019t kiss or hug you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ofri Bibas, Yarden Bibas\u2019s sister, touched on the popular anger and demand for the government to allow an independent investigation into the Oct. 7 failures and accept responsibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere is no meaning to forgiveness before the failures are investigated and all officials take responsibility,\u201d she said in her eulogy. \u201cOur disaster as a nation and as a family should not have happened and must never happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Government officials were asked to stay away from the private burial. A few days ago, Ofri Bibas criticized the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for not apologizing to the family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Crowds also gathered at a central plaza in Tel Aviv now known as Hostage Square to watch a livestream of the eulogies on a large screen. Some people were wrapped in Israeli flags. Some wore orange to remember the redheaded children. Others held orange balloons aloft then released them into the sky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Maia Szryftman, 53, had come from Nahariya, on Israel\u2019s northern border, to express support for the family and be part of the public outpouring. \u201cThe heart aches for the two children, for the whole family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yael Koren, 44, said she had come to the square \u201cto be human.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI believe that being together makes us stronger,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">She showed an image on her cellphone of a picture that her son, nearly 7, had drawn of a boy who had been kidnapped. She said her children\u2019s school had sent memos home about how to answer their questions about the Bibas children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cBut you can\u2019t explain it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/26\/world\/middleeast\/israel-bibas-funeral.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The people of Israel embraced them on their final journey, turning out in multitudes along the funeral route for a family that<br \/><button class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/at-funeral-for-shiri-bibas-and-children-an-israeli-outpouring-of-grief\/26\/02\/2025\/\">Read More &rsaquo;<\/a><\/button><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}