They were thrust into the spotlight overnight—for the most heartbreaking reason imaginable. Before 7 October 2023, few knew the names Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas. After that dark day, few will forget.
Hamas captured some of the last images of Shiri and her two little boys. They show Shiri, 32, her face a mask of terror, frantically clutching 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir as if holding them close could somehow shield them from the unfolding nightmare. The boys’ fiery red curls peek from beneath the white blanket Shiri wrapped around them in one final, futile act of protection.
Their father, Yarden (34) was captured and dragged to Gaza separately, while Shiri and the two boys—named to embody strength and courage (Ariel means ‘Lion of God’,’ while Kfir means ‘Lion Cub’), were marched by a baying mob of masked terrorists through the destruction of Kibbutz Nir Oz to a deadly fate in Gaza.
The images captured hearts around the world and turned Shiri, Ariel and Kfir into the symbols of innocent hostages, clutched in the face of unimaginable evil.
For more than 500 days, Israel waited. Hoped. Prayed. Kfir’s first birthday and Ariel’s fifth came and went in captivity. Throughout the war, Hamas claimed that Shiri and her sons had been killed in Israeli airstrikes. Yet, Hamas are masters of psychological warfare, known for their cruel manipulations. They had lied about the fate of hostages before, even staging deaths on film, as they did with Daniella Gilboa.
And so Israel hoped…
Throughout the first stage of the hostage release agreement, that hope began to fray. Every week, a group of Israelis were released—until Yarden himself came home. But Shiri, Ariel and Kfir remained missing.
Then, in late February, Hamas announced that the bodies of Oded Lifshitz (85) and the Bibas family would be handed over to Israel—all supposedly killed in Israeli airstrikes.
A macabre spectacle
Hamas has turned every hostage release into a grotesque performance. Yet, these twisted rituals reached a horrific climax for the handover of the remains. Israelis called it “the saddest day since 7 October.” For Hamas, it was a fun affair for the whole family.
Thousands of Gazans gathered to witness the grim display. Men lounged in plastic chairs, mothers cradled babies while children packed the bleachers erected the day before.
“The story of the Bibas family is not just a tragedy—it is a moral reckoning. It forces the world to confront an uncomfortable truth: there can be no equivalence between those who seek peace and those who glorify terror. History will remember who stood for truth—and who enabled a lie.”
Large loudspeakers blasted lively music, adding to the festive atmosphere as the crowd clapped and cheered.
Masked terrorists strutted proudly, posing for pictures with children, alongside a table on which an automatic weapon, ammunition anti-tank mines were on display for the future generation of Gazans to marvel. On stage loomed a mural crudely depicting Israel’s prime minister as a blood- sucking vampire, with a message in Hebrew, Arabic and English: “These hostages died in Israeli air strikes, we bear no responsibility for their demise, Israel’s fault, not ours.”
And between the crowd and the stage, four black coffins, each with a name, photo and inscription: “Date of arrest: 7 October 2023.”
Later, Israeli journalist Rachel O’Donoghue wrote: “It wasn’t just the presence of the four coffins that made the spectacle an echo of the savagery of 7 October. It was the festive atmosphere—the casual, almost celebratory way a community gathered to watch a terrorist group display the bodies of murdered Jews. A society so desensitised to terroristic violence that even the sight of coffins holding two dead babies did not shock. Did not horrify. Quite the opposite. It was a cause for celebration. The mothers and fathers of Gaza brought their children to watch. To gawk. To clap. At the sight of dead Jews.”
Hamas wasn’t done with the psychological torture. The group handed over the coffins—locked—and then provided the wrong keys. Then, in a supposed accident, they sent back the wrong body, returning the remains of a Palestinian woman instead of Shiri.
A day later, the truth emerged. Hamas had lied—again. Shiri, Ariel and Kfir had not died in airstrikes. Rather, they had been strangled shortly after being taken hostage. Then, Hamas mutilated their bodies to mimic the injuries of a missile strike.Moral equivalence?
Many condemned Hamas outright. Yet the predictable anti-Israel rhetoric came quickly: “How are the Bibas brothers different from the Palestinian children who died in Gaza? Why condemn Hamas without mentioning the children who died in Israeli airstrikes?”
The argument is morally misplaced. Every innocent civilian death in war is tragic. But Proverbs 29:2 warns: “When the wicked rules, the people groan.” And when an evil leader drags his people into
war by attacking his neighbour and then uses his own civilians as human shields, the suffering of the evil leader’s people is his fault, not his neighbour’s.
The argument that Hamas rebelled against Israeli oppression is equally skewed. In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in a ‘land-for-peace’ effort, a type of test run that would potentially lead to the creation of the one thing the Palestinians claimed they wanted in exchange for peace with the Israelis: a state of their own. The international community poured billions into prospering Gaza, and with open borders to Israel and Egypt, Hamas had every opportunity to turn the area into a paradise.
Instead, Hamas pocketed the billions, built a war machine, fired rockets at Israeli civilians, dug terror tunnels, incited uprisings in the Sinai Peninsula and turned Gaza into a fortress of destruction. The result? Both Israel and Egypt imposed partial blockades to limit access to materials used by Hamas for war—with the restrictions on the Egyptian side even tighter than on Israel’s.
Neither the Bibas boys nor the Gazan children deserved suffering. But the difference is clear: Hamas kidnapped Ariel and Kfir to serve as human shields, just as they use their own civilians as shields. Hamas held them hostage to prevent Israel from responding to the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. The Bibas brothers were in Gaza because Hamas wanted to exterminate Jews without suffering the consequences.
Lebanese–Canadian professor Gad Saad put it best: “A non-targeted baby that dies in an airstrike is a tragedy. A baby that dies at the hands of his captors by being beaten to death is a violation of human decency. Both babies died, both are innocent, both deaths are tragic, but there is zero moral equivalence between the two realities.”
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness,” the prophet Isaiah warned (5:20a).
The story of the Bibas family is not just a tragedy—it is a moral reckoning. It forces the world to confront an uncomfortable truth: there can be no equivalence between those who seek peace and those who glorify terror.
History will remember who stood for truth—and who enabled a lie.
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