A nation in mourning – and anger

Yesterday, Hamas was supposed to fulfil its promise to release the remains of four innocent Israelis they had brutally taken hostage on 7th October 2023 and subsequently murdered: Shiri Silberman Bibas, her two young sons Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 at the time of his abduction.

The bodies of four slain Israeli hostages were to be returned to Israel 503 days after they were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz and dragged to Gaza on October 7, 2023, by Hamas-led terrorists.

The hand-over took place in a macabre and grotesque ceremony in the Bani Suheila area of southern Gaza’s Khan Younis. Hamas proudly displayed coffins purporting to contain the bodies of the four, on a stage covered with propaganda posters and a huge backdrop portraying Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as dracula. (Hamas claims Netanyahu is responsible for their deaths).

The coffins were transferred to Red Cross vehicles at around 9:30 a.m., and soon after handed over to the IDF. The coffins were then draped in Israeli flags for a short military ceremony. Psalm 83 was read aloud. Israeli troops saluted. The mourner’s Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, was not recited at the ceremony because the bodies were not yet identified. The caskets were then carried by IDF officers into waiting vehicles for the journey back to Israel for identification.

“Hamas is not a resistance movement. Hamas is a death cult that murders, that tortures and parades dead bodies,”

In a statement, the Israeli government called Hamas a “death cult”. “Hamas is not a resistance movement. Hamas is a death cult that murders, that tortures and parades dead bodies,” government spokesman David Mencer told journalists.

“Agony. Pain. There are no words,” wrote the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, on X. “Our hearts – the hearts of an entire nation – lie in tatters. On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely.”

But the worst was yet to come. In the meantime, specialists at the Abu Kabir institute were identifying the bodies. During the day yesterday, they positively identified the two Bibas boys and elderly Lifshitz.

However early this morning (Friday) they announced that they are unable to identify the fourth body.

It appears Hamas has not handed over the body of Shiri Bibas, but another body of someone who cannot yet be identified.

This is the height of barbarity. The people of Israel are furious and distraught.

Again, Hamas is cynically playing with the lives of innocent civilians. Words cannot describe the depth of this depravity.

The IDF anounced:“This is a very serious violation by the Hamas terrorist organization, which is required by the agreement to return four dead hostages. We demand that Hamas return Shiri home, along with all of our hostages.”

“503 agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end”

Lifshitz, 83, was a lifelong peace activist and one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz. His wife Yocheved was abducted separately and released 16 days later. “We received with sorrow the official and bitter news about the identification of the body of our beloved Oded,” the Lifshitz family said in a statement carried by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. “503 agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end,” they said, adding: “We hoped and prayed so much for the ending to be different. Now we can mourn the husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who we have been missing since October 7. Our family’s rehabilitation will start now and won’t end until the last hostage is returned.”

Shiri Silberman Bibas and her two young sons Ariel and Kfir, who were aged 4 years and 9 months respectively at the time, were abducted from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz by members of the Mujahideen Brigades, an armed faction in the Gaza Strip allied with Hamas.

Shiri’s husband and father of their children Yarden was abducted separately after he left the safe room of their Nir Oz home in an attempt to distract the gunmen and save his family. He was freed from Gaza on February 1.

Shiri’s parents, Margit Shnaider Silberman, 63, and her husband Yosef José Luis (Yossi) Silberman, 67, were killed at their Nir Oz home on October 7. They are survived by their daughter Dana.

Bus bombings near Tel Aviv

In another development, yesterday four buses in Israel were exploded simultaneously. The buses were empty, there were no casualties. It appears to be connected to radical groups in the Tulkarem refugee camp. The government has called for a massive counter-terrorism operation. Palestinian refugee camps in Judea and Samaria are hotbeds of radical jihad ideology. Many in Israel fear for an attack like that of October 7th, this time from the West Bank. The IDF and Israeli security forces are on full alert.

As Christians, we share the deep anger, grief and pain suffered by the families of these beautiful people, and of the whole nation of Israel. Their pain is our pain. The loss of their children is the loss of our children. Let us mourn and weep with our Jewish brothers and sisters, and with all who value life.

Those who abducted and killed these precious people, and are now mocking them, are to be pitied. They are the product of a society that is sick to the core – a society that worships death and destruction, that has taught its children to hate and kill Jews. We in the West also share some of the blame. We have been naïve. For decades, we have pandered to the Palestinian leadership – including Hamas – by pouring massive amounts of money into their coffers, confirming them in their identity of victimhood, condoning their violence, denying them agency and promising them a state of their own at any price.

The claim that Hamas and their comrades are justly fighting to free themselves from an illegal occupation is a lie. Their hatred of Jews is inspired by Islamist ideology, and long pre-dates the so-called “occupation”. The Hamas Charter shows that the goal of Hamas is not to end the occupation, but to kill Jews and annihilate the Jewish state.

Israel’s determination to avenge the lives of the hostages is understandable, but it is not the answer. We are facing a tragedy and dilemma of unprecedented proportion. Somehow, together, the world must ensure that this evil ideology is destroyed. So far, no-one has come up with the answer.

Let us pray that the Lord will comfort His grieving people, and that He will intervene in some way to end this tragedy, and bring all to the knowledge of Christ.