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.
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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