Knesset sessions halted as Israel mourns Bibas family
Lawmakers in Israel’s Knesset observed moments of silence across multiple committees on Wednesday ahead of the funeral of Shiri Bibas and her sons, Kfir, and Ariel.
Shiri’s grave
Several committees, including the Economic Committee, the National Security Committee, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and the Subcommittee on Artificial Intelligence, began their discussions by pausing to remember the slain mother and her two young children.
Meetings of the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Immigration and Absorption Committee, and the State Control Committee were postponed.
In the Knesset plenum, Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) led a moment of silence, paying tribute to the murdered hostages.
“Last night, Oded Lifshitz was laid to rest, and the Knesset was illuminated in orange in memory of those being laid to rest at this moment: Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, the redheads. We remember and will not forget,” Ohana said.
Lawmakers in committee rooms also recited Psalms.
Thousands of Israelis lined the streets of southern Israel and gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square to pay their last respects. Many held signs, flags, or orange balloons — a symbol of the childrens’ hair color.
The three will be laid to rest in Zohar, near the family’s home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. The funeral is closed to the public but will be livestreamed.
Shiri Bibas and her husband, Yarden, and sons Ariel and Kfir were abducted from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of Oct. 7. At just nine-months-old, the red-haired Kfir was the youngest hostage. Ariel was four.
Shiri and the boys were expected to be released along with 105 other women and children during the temporary ceasefire of November 2023. On November 29, Hamas claimed the three had been killed in an Israeli airstrike but provided no evidence.
Yarden was released on Feb. 1.
Israeli pathologists confirmed that Shiri and the children were murdered in November 2023, adding that there was no evidence to indicate they died in an airstrike.
All four were Israeli-Argentine nationals. Argentine President Javier Milei declared two days of national mourning.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 63 remaining hostages, 36 are believed to be dead.
