Thousands of Israelis lined the route on Thursday as the convoy bringing the bodies of four Israeli hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Israel, including a four-year-old boy and his infant brother, travelled from Gaza to the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv for identification.
The crowds, carrying Israeli and yellow flags, symbolising the hostages, braved the wind and rain and stood in silent tribute, heads bowed, in a final show of respect. Some wept and others sang Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem. Soldiers and police saluted. Some of the crowd held orange balloons, symbolising the ginger-headed Bibas children.
All four hostages were seized from kibbutz Nir Oz on the Gaza border, where one in four members were either killed or taken hostage by Palestinian militants during the attack on October 7th, 2023.
The image of a terrified Shira Bibas, clutching her sons, Kfir, who was nine months old – the youngest of all the hostages seized – and four-year-old Ariel, became one of the defining images of that day. The children’s father, Yarden, was released earlier this month with two other hostages. He had been informed by his captives that his wife and children were dead but found out for sure only when he returned to Israel.
The fourth body returned on Thursday was that of Oded Lifshitz (85), a founder member of the kibbutz, a lifelong peace activist and one of the oldest captives. The Israel Defense Forces informed the Lifshitz family on Thursday that Oded was murdered in Islamic Jihad captivity. He was captured with his wife Yocheved, who was released in an earlier exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas claimed Ms Bibas and her two children were killed by an Israeli air strike but the Israeli military said this could be confirmed only by a forensic examination.
After Hamas displayed the four coffins in a ceremony in Khan Younis, United Nations human rights commissioner Volker Turk said the parading of the bodies of hostages in Gaza was “abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law”.
It was a sombre day for Israel. Cultural events and festive events were cancelled.
“The hearts of an entire nation lie in tatters,” said President Yitzhak Herzog. “Agony. Pain. There are no words. I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely. May their memory be a blessing.”
Attention is now focused on Saturday, when six living hostages are due to be released under the terms of the first phase of a three-stage ceasefire agreed last month. Next Thursday the bodies of a further four hostages are to be handed over. Israel believes 66 hostages taken on October 7th, 2023 are still being held in Gaza – about half of whom are believed to be alive.
Talks on stage two of the ceasefire are expected to begin next week. Taher a-Nunu, a Hamas spokesman, said the militant group was prepared to release all of the remaining hostages in a single group, and not to spread that process out over several weeks, in return for a permanent end to the Gaza war and a full withdrawal of IDF troops from the Gaza Strip.
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Israel is demanding the demilitarisation of Gaza and the exile of all Hamas leaders. The far-right Religious Zionist party is threatening to quit prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government if the war is not resumed after the completion of the first stage of the ceasefire.
The Gaza war began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, when gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. More than 48,200 people have been killed by the Israeli offensive in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
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