The Bibas Family

“I love you.”  “They’re coming in the house.”  Those were the final texts that Yarden Bibas, a 32-year-old father of two, sent to his sister Ofri at 9:45am on the morning of October 7, 2023.

Yarden had been texting with Ofri for hours, describing how waves of Hamas terrorists were engulfing his small kibbutz of Nir Oz where he lived with his wife Shiri, also 32, and their two sons, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir.  Terrorists kidnapped the Bibas family.

The Bibas family became a symbol, inside of Israel and around the world.  For a year and a half we’ve all been holding our breath, waiting for the Bibas children and their parents to come home.  They have come to symbolize all that was lost on that day.

Typical Israeli Family

The Bibases lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz, close to the border with Gaza.

Shiri grew up in Nir Oz.  (Her parents Margit Shnaider Silberman and Yosef Jose Luis - Yossi - Silberman lived in Nir Oz for decades after immigrating to Israel from Peru and Argentina respectively.  They were both murdered on October 7.)  Shiri worked as a beloved teacher on the kibbutz.  When she married Yarden they moved into a small single-story house on the kibbutz.  They had Ariel, whose flaming orange hair matched his bubbly personality - he was fun and obsessed with Batman - then Kfir, described by his relatives as a laid-back baby who was still being fed with formula when he was kidnapped.

Yarden, a welder, enjoys stand-up comedy.  His family are Yemenite Jews; his sister joked the family called Ariel and Kfir the “first Yemenite redheads.”  Shiri and Yarden were tired of the rockets that Hamas has ceaselessly launched into Nir Oz and the surrounding areas through the years, near-daily attacks that are seldom reported in the Western press.  They were thinking of moving to the Golan Heights, where Yarden’s sister Ofri and her family live.  They never had the chance.

Taken Captive

“At 6:30 AM, he wrote about the rockets,” Ofri described of October 7.  Throughout the morning, as thousands of terrorists invaded Israel, Yarden updated his sister that he, Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were hiding in their safe room, locked in as they listened to the sounds of massacres outside.  (Nearly half of Nir Oz’s 400 residents were murdered or kidnapped on October 7, 2023.)

Yarden texted Ofri that he and Shiri were trying to keep the boys quiet so that terrorists wouldn’t hear them, but the boys were too young to be silent.  CCTV footage of the house shows terrorists surrounding the Bibas’ house and drilling open the locked front door.  Yarden left his safe room to fight the terrorists invading his home.

Yarden was injured and brought into Gaza.  His sister describes: “The day Yarden turned thirty three (on Oct. 9), we saw the first picture of my brother in captivity on an Arab-news website.  In the picture, he was surrounded by Hamas terrorists.  He was alive but bleeding from his head.  Later, we found three additional pictures of Yarden.  In one of the pictures, you can see the terrorists strangling him with one hand and holding a hammer in another.  I don’t know if they hit him in the head with the hammer.  In every picture, my brother’s face just looks worse and worse - he’s bleeding more and you can see he’s scared.  In the last picture, they are walking him somewhere and he just looks defeated.”

Shira and her boys being kidnapped

Hamas released a cynical propaganda video of Shiri and the children. Wrapped in a sheet, Shiri clutches Ariel and Kfir as terrorists surround them. She looks distraught and keeps repeating in Hebrew “Stop, stop.”  Kfir Bibas, just nine months old, became the youngest captive that day.

Living Hell in Gaza

Inside Gaza, Hamas turned over Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir to the terrorist group Kataib Mujahadin.  A month later, Hamas later announced that Shiri and her children were dead, without providing any evidence: they blamed Israeli air strikes for killing the family.  Israel treated this statement with skepticism, only saying they remained gravely concerned about the Bibas family.

Yarden was kept in brutal conditions.  Two months into his captivity, he was told his wife and children were dead.  Hamas recorded a heartrending propaganda video as Yarden sobbed and begged that their bodies be released and returned to Israel for burial.  Yarden was held in private homes some of the time.  Often, he was held inside a cage in an airless tunnel and beaten by his captors.  He went long stretches without food.  Israeli hostages who were with him describe being taunted with promises that they were about to go home, only to have that hope dashed, and being given food only for Hamas terrorists to snatch it out of their hands.

Adina Moshe, a 72-year-old Israeli who was taken captive from Nir Oz (and released after 49 days) described seeing Yarden in a Hamas tunnel.  He and his fellow captive Ofer Kalderon were in a cage as punishment because “they had confronted Hamas” while being held.

“There were cages there,” Adina recalled.  “I approached, and it was completely dark.  I asked, ‘Why are you in a cage?’ and they said they didn’t know.  When I asked if they had confronted Hamas, it turned out they had.  During the abduction, they had confronted Hamas.”  Yarden asked her if she had any information about his wife and children; she did not.  On February 1, 2025, after 484 days in captivity, Hamas released Yarden Bibas and two other hostages in return for 183 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails for a range of violent crimes. With the definitive fate of his family still unknown, Yarden clung to hope.

Symbol Around the World

Ariel and Kfir came to symbolize all the Israeli hostages.  Supporters around the world wore orange, the color of their bright hair, at rallies and on social media to draw attention to their plight.  On Kfir’s first birthday, hundreds of people gathered in Tel Aviv holding orange balloons. Many also displayed pictures of Batman, Ariel’s favorite, to draw attention to the two boys.  In August 2024, the annual Redhead Days Festival in Tilburg, in the Netherlands, transformed itself into a rally calling for Ariel’s and Kfir’s release.  10,000 participants learned about the young children and called for Hamas to let them and their parents go.

Yarden Bibas released

Even though the United Nations declares that “The abduction of children during conflict is one of the six grave violations identified and condemned by the UN Security Council,” it’s yet to condemn Hamas for its orgy of slaughter and kidnapping on October 7, 2023.

Maintaining Hope

Hamas has said they plan to return the bodies of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir on Thursday, February 20, 2025. Many Israelis were plunged into grief. Israel has yet to confirm their murders, so until we have proof that they are no longer alive, let us continue to storm the Heavens with our prayers.

In their short lives, Ariel and Kfir Bibas have united Jews all over the world as we prayed and hoped and demonstrated and worked so hard for their return. We owe it to them to remember the unity and love they inspired, and to exact justice in their name.

Addendum 

Friday morning Israel woke up to the shocking news that the body of Shiri Bibas was not found in the coffin; it was an anonymous Gazan woman instead. It was also determined that Ariel and Kfir were killed 10 months ago by Hamas, and not in an Israeli airstrike. They killed the boys with their hands and tried to cover it up. Eventually Hamas returned the body of Shiri Bibas.

The sheer depravity and naked evil of Hamas knows no bounds. The nation of Israel is stricken with grief as well as rage. May God avenge their blood, may the world recognize the cruel evil of Hamas, and may they we vanquish our enemies.