Cousin of Bibas family murdered by Hamas says Gaza residents also have blood on their hands

TEL AVIV, Israel — Yosi Shnaider recognized the terrified woman in the video being dragged away by Hamas terrorists as his cousin, Shiri Bibas, only because of the children she clutched to her chest.

Their shock of red hair was a sign that Mrs. Bibas and her two sons, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir, were among those kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, from their home in the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel a mile from the Gaza Strip.

Mr. Shnaider tried to contact family members at Nir Oz when he heard that Hamas had launched a cross-border attack that morning from the Palestinian enclave. Failing that, he frantically searched social media accounts for any information.

That was where he found the video of his cousin and her sons.

He later came across a photograph of a bleeding Yarden Bibis, the father of the two boys, carried into Gaza on the back of a motorcycle.

“She was holding her two kids like a lioness,” Mr. Shnaider told an international group of reporters in Israel. “I saw that she wanted to protect her kids, but she was afraid to make a noise. She was silent, but you could still see it in her face that she’s screaming.”

Some 1,200 people in Israel — mostly civilians — were killed and 251 taken hostage in the Oct. 7 raid that triggered Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Kfir Bibas was the youngest kidnapping victim, and a photograph of him with a toothless grin became an international symbol of the entire ordeal.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog displayed the photo of the smiling Kfir when he addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

Most of those living at Nir Oz were liberal supporters of a peaceful coexistence with their neighbors in nearby Gaza. Mr. Shnaider remembers his cousin not as the terrified and haunted woman in the video, doing everything possible to protect her children. 

“She was very funny, a very joyful person,” he said. “Ariel was 4 years old and had a lot of energy, and [Kfir] didn’t do anything to anybody his entire life.”

Israeli officials believe Shiri Bibas and her children were killed only weeks after they were taken hostage into Gaza. An autopsy later revealed they were strangled, and beaten postmortem in an attempt to pin the blame for their deaths on an Israeli air force strike.

Shiri Bibas’ parents, Yossi and Margit Silberman, also lived in Nir Oz and died in the Oct. 7 massacre after Hamas torched their home.

Mr. Shnaider shuttered his real estate business near Tel Aviv to devote all his time to advocating for his family and the other hostages. He said it’s impossible to imagine how anyone could force small children to live in the darkened tunnels crisscrossing the Gaza Strip.

“Hamas knew that capturing Kfir and Ariel — two sweet redheaded children — would make for devastating and demoralizing propaganda,” he wrote in an essay for The Wall Street Journal. “My country is on trial at The Hague for a war none of us wanted to fight, while my family’s captors and murderers are painted as resistance fighters. The world has never lacked for people who hate Jews standing up for themselves, and others who wish we would die quietly.”

Hamas officials often refused to provide their Israeli hostages with any food and regularly shuttled them around the tunnels. Mr. Shnaider accused them of psychologically torturing Yarden Bibas by telling him they murdered his wife and sons.

Hamas released Yarden Bibas on Feb. 1 after his 484 days in captivity. On Feb. 20, they handed over coffins that they claimed contained the bodies of his wife and sons. Although DNA testing verified the remains of Ariel and Kfir, Israeli officials accused Hamas of handing over a body that wasn’t Sheri Bibas or any other hostage. The Iran-backed terrorists returned her body to Israel the next day.

“Even though Hamas told him last November that the kids had been killed in an Israeli bombing, he still kept the faith that maybe they were alive because Hamas lies,” Mr. Shnaider said.  

Tens of thousands of Israelis, holding flags and orange balloons in a salute to the “ginger babies,” lined highways as the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two sons were taken for burial on Feb. 26 in a single casket.

Yarden Bibas is still racked with guilt about not being able to protect his wife and children from the Hamas attackers, Mr. Shnaider said.

“He’s in a hotel room right now, He doesn’t have a house because it was ruined. Now he has no place to go,” he said. “This government hasn’t done anything for him. He came back more than a month ago and they didn’t speak to him once.”

Mr. Shnaider remembers the days when the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel was open more often than not. Israeli citizens could easily and safely cross into Gaza to go swimming at one of its pristine beaches on the Mediterranean.

Meanwhile, Palestinians would come to Israel for shopping or an appointment with a physician.

Jews and Arabs live together in relative harmony inside Israel, but the situation is different when it comes to Gaza, Mr. Shnaider said. 

“If I’m eating in a restaurant, they’re there. If it was a nice day at the beach, you would see Arabs and Jews together,” he said. “But the population in Gaza is not innocent because who kidnaps children? There were more than 3,000 civilians who came inside Israel and did everything — things you can’t even imagine.”

The residents of the Gaza Strip voted Hamas into power. Even those who were there on Oct. 7 showered the terrorists with candy and cheers when they returned from their rampage inside southern Israel, Mr. Shnaider said.