Matti Friedman: The Family that Never Came Home

Yarden Bibas returned to Israel alive. But his wife Shiri—and their two young children, Kfir and Ariel—tragically came home in coffins. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
The deaths of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas were too unbearable to believe. Israelis couldn’t accept it until we had no other choice.
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Israeli television did not broadcast the ceremony that took place in Gaza this morning. As masked terrorists put four black coffins on a stage in Khan Younis, the channels instead showed photos of the people inside them, taken before the war began—including of an Israeli mother and two redheaded boys, laughing on a couch, picking fruit in an orchard, still believing they’re safe.
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