As a mother, I ask myself, how can anyone who claims to care about mothers and children be silent about the fate of Shiri Bibas and her two small adorable red-headed children, Ariel age 4 and 10-month-old baby Kfir?
By Rachel Avraham
IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the IDF can “confirm” that four-year-old Ariel and the baby Kfir Bibas were “brutally murdered while being held hostage in Gaza” and were not killed in an Israeli airstrike, “contrary to Hamas lies.” According to various appraisals, they were murdered no later than November 2023, less than a month after being abducted from their homes in Southern Israel alive. Hagari revealed that “the terrorists did not shoot the two young boys—-they killed them with their bare hands.”
In other words, the Hamas terrorists strangled them to death, thus causing the poor children to die in a slow, painful and miserable manner. Following the murders, Hamas desecrated the bodies of the children in order to “make forensic analysis difficult and cover up the Iran-backed terrorist group’s atrocities,” the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies reported. To add insult to injury, Hamas handed over the bodies of the two children to the Red Cross during a sickening ceremony, where Palestinian families with children enjoyed festive music as the bodies of other children were publicly displayed in a cruel manner.
As if all of this were not cruel enough, Hamas violated the hostage deal when they handed over the body of an anonymous Gazan woman instead of the body of the boy’s mother, Shiri Bibas. Although Hamas claims that it was a mistake and they did proceed to send the correct body twenty-four hours later, many will find it hard to believe that it was a genuine mistake and not a cruel ploy by the Hamas terror group to inflict further psychological harm on Yarden Bibas, the husband of Shiri Bibas, and his family. This is especially the case given that forensic experts have already concluded that Shiri Bibas, like her children, was also murdered by Hamas in captivity, early on in the war.
Joe Truzman, senior analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, remarked regarding Hamas’s claim that there was simply a mix-up with the bodies: “There are numerous reasons to suspect this is merely a fabricated story to serve its propaganda. Hamas and its allies have a proven history of dishonesty regarding the condition of hostages. Moreover, in May of last year, Hamas attempted to disguise the body of an unidentified individual as that of an Israeli soldier in their custody — a claim the IDF proved to be false.”
Indeed, I would be interested to know the identity of the Gazan woman whose body was sent initially instead of Shiri Bibas. If we find out who she is, then we will know soon if it was a mistake or not. If she was a civilian who died of natural causes or was a causality of an Israeli airstrike, then likely it was a mistake. But if she turns out to be a Gazan women’s rights activist opposed to Hamas, then it is very likely that Hamas deliberately murdered her and sent her body instead of Shiri Bibas, so that she would be deprived of a proper burial with her loved ones in Gaza, with a proper grave, as punishment for opposing Hamas. Therefore, Israel should do everything possible to figure out who that anonymous woman was and her cause of death.
To our great chagrin, following the cruel murder of the Bibas children and their mother, and the horrific ordeal that the Bibas family went through to recover the bodies, most of the major human rights NGOs have chosen to remain deathly silent. Amnesty International praised the fact that Hamas terror financer Mohammed al-Halabi was released from prison, claiming that he was a prisoner of conscious. They protested the fact that Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister, will be hosted by the EU in Brussels. They condemned the idea of a hijab ban in France and were highly critical of US President Donald Trump’s policies along the Mexican border. But, they had absolutely nothing to say about how Hamas brutally murdered the poor Bibas children and their mother, and the gruesome display they did of the bodies in front of the Red Cross.
Human Rights Watch also remained silent on the brutal murder of the Bibas children and their mother, Shiri, as well as Hamas’s cruel theatrical display when they returned the bodies to Israel. If you go to the Human Rights Watch website, they were critical of Israel for destroying much of the infrastructure in Southern Lebanon, which resulted in barring tens of thousands of Lebanese from returning to their homes. They criticized Israel for destroying Gaza’s water infrastructure. They condemned Trump’s plan to relocate the Gazan population.
They even did an entire report criticizing Israel for the difficulties faced by pregnant Gazan women. However, they had nothing to say about the recent revelation that the Bibas children were brutally murdered in captivity alongside their mother, or the cruel spectacle that we all witnessed recently. According to the Jerusalem Post, the abuse of the Bibas family was mentioned in a July report, but this token attention appeared to be the sole exception.
Save the Children International is one of the most prominent children’s rights organizations worldwide. According to their mission statement, “Children’s lives, safety, well-being, and futures are under attack in an increasingly dangerous and unequal world. Nearly 300 million people – or 1 in 27 people – are expected to need humanitarian assistance this year. We will aim to assist 15.9 million children across 46 countries in response to the most significant threat to children’s rights in recent memory. Together, we will ensure no child is left behind.”
In a Save the Children International appeal, the organization claims that they support a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and are pleased with the pause in hostilities: “The government of Israel and Hamas have finally reached agreement on a pause in hostilities after 15 months of siege and bombardment by Israeli forces that followed attacks by Palestinian armed groups in Israel on 7 October 2023. This agreement will facilitate the release of Israeli hostages, including children, and Palestinian children held in Israeli military detention, and we hope it offers the first step towards the peace, protection and accountability that children deserve.” In other words, Palestinian minors who engage in terrorist activity are considered one and the same as Israeli children held hostage by Hamas in the eyes of Save the Children International.
In another article, Save the Children International are critical of how the recent war has destroyed the lives of many Gazan children, but they are completely silent about how the war has also destroyed the lives of countless Israeli children, and they have absolutely nothing to say about the fate of the poor Bibas babies. According to the Jerusalem Post, “they have not once mentioned the Bibas children on its website or social media.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), supposedly “for every child,” mentioned the Bibas children once in passing during Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban’s September briefing and in one October 7 anniversary X/Twitter post. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights had been silent on the Bibas family until finally condemning the display Thursday afternoon. United Nations Human Rights Chief, Volker Turk, has condemned the parading of bodies by Hamas, calling it a violation of international law. According to the Daily Post, he stated: “Under international law, any handover of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families.”
Prior to that, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights did issue a statement on the poor condition in which the Israeli hostages were being returned to Israel, but equated it with the condition of the Palestinian terrorists detained in Israeli prisons: “Images of emaciated Israeli hostages and Palestinian detainees released as part of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement have been deeply distressing.”
They continued: “The images we have seen of Israeli hostages released over the weekend show signs of ill-treatment and severe malnourishment, reflecting very dire conditions they were subjected to in Gaza. We are also deeply concerned by the public parading of hostages released by Hamas in Gaza, including statements apparently made under duress during release. Also distressing, Palestinians released from Israeli detention have revealed such treatment, reflecting the severe conditions under which they have been held. The manner in which they have been released also raises serious concerns.”
The International Red Cross refused to visit the Bibas family for 500 days. Yarden, Shiri and their two small children could have greatly benefited from Red Cross visits during their time in captivity. In fact, if they got Red Cross visits from day one, then maybe Hamas would have never murdered Shiri and her two boys.
But sadly, they simply did not show up at their doorstep until it was time to free Yarden in exchange for cold-blooded terrorists and to liberate the bodies of his wife Shiri and their small children, Kfir and Ariel, from Hamas captivity. The Red Cross did object to the horrific display that Hamas did of the bodies, but they still participated in the Hamas ceremony due to the threat that they would not get the bodies otherwise. Until the pageantry of death that accompanied the release of the bodies of the Bibas children, the International Red Cross was silent. They said nothing when Yarden Bibas returned showing clear signs of being starved, tortured and abused. For Yarden Bibas, they were nothing more than an uber service and this is a sham, an utter outrage, that should shock all of humanity.
As a mother, I ask myself, how can anyone who claims to care about mothers and children be silent about the fate of Shiri Bibas and her two small adorable red-headed children, Ariel age 4 and 10-month-old baby Kfir? Any normal mother upon seeing the shocking Hamas spectacle and learning about the horrible fate of the Bibas children and their wonderful mother, Shiri, would cry alongside Yarden Bibas. Indeed, the tears would not stop flowing over this horrific crime against humanity.
In fact, Sky News host Chris Kenny, a seasoned journalist, fought back tears when he read the announcement that Hamas would be returning the dead bodies of Shiri and her two small children. For months, we all hoped and prayed for a different result, and got to know the Bibas family on a first name basis via our television screens. The abduction of Shiri Bibas and her two boys, Kfir and Ariel, became one of the main symbols of the October 7 massacre and the subsequent hostage crisis. However, the organizations that claim to care about human rights, women’s rights and children’s rights were deafly silent about the murder of Shiri Bibas and her two boys. Their silence is likely a sign of anti-Semitism. Apparently, the cold blooded murder of Jewish babies and their mother for the crime of being Jewish means nothing to them.
