Many Israelis were hoping and praying for a better ending to the horrifying story of Shiri Bibas and her two red-headed children, the Batman-loving Ariel and the baby, Kfir. 

After being abducted from their home at Kibbutz Nir Oz, a photo of the anguished mother holding on tightly to her two children as Hamas terrorists surrounded them became entrenched in the Israeli consciousness. When father Yarden Bibas was freed by Hamas on February 1, there was a ray of hope that perhaps against all odds the family might be reunited in the near future.

After 16 months of uncertainty regarding their fate, reality came crashing down on Thursday. Baby Kfir, his 5-year-old brother, Ariel, and their mother Shiri, 33, were returned to Israel in coffins, along with Oded Lifschitz, 84, who was their neighbor at Nir Oz. 

The children’s aunt, Ofri Bibas, fought for the release of her family members until the last moment. Speaking to The New York Sun seven weeks ago, she said she was clinging onto hope that the family would be returned alive in the hostage deal. Her brother was still held captive in the Gaza tunnels at the time of the interview. 

“I feel like it’s so obvious that these two little kids need to be home in Israel,” Ms. Bibas told the Sun. “Kfir will be 2 and Ariel will be 6. By fighting for my nephews’ release, I’m fighting for the most important part of my brother’s life. Yarden loves his kids so much.”

Other members of the family felt differently about the young mother’s fate. Shiri’s only sister, Dana Silberman-Sitton, told an Israeli news outlet, Yedioth Ahronoth, in September that she had created a defense mechanism for herself. 

Israeli Defense Force soldiers “did not find any blood-stained clothes in the tunnels, and they didn’t find any baby bottles. There are no DNA samples that have arrived in Israel. The only real thing is the video of Yarden from captivity, upset, asking that Shiri and the children be returned for burial in Israel.”

Ms. Silberman-Sitton, whose parents were also murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7 in Kibbutz Nir Oz, added: “Because I can no longer live with uncertainty, it drives me crazy and it is much harder to live with when I’m trying to hold onto sanity for myself and for the sake of my family, I live with the knowledge that Shiri and the children are dead.” She is the only surviving member of her nuclear family. 

For millions of other mothers in Israel, the news on Thursday was devastating. “I’m sad that we’ll never truly know what happened,” a junior high school educator, Hagar Dagmi Jonkman, told the Sun. “I’m extremely angry at the cruelty that exists right beyond our fence, which strikes us every time. Yet despite everything, I still hold on to hope.”

Ms. Dagmi Jonkman added: “I constantly think about Shiri, about her bravery and courage. How she hugged and protected her kids, how they were her whole world, and she was theirs. I also think about how their love and connection must have kept them strong in those moments.

“I sincerely hope that Shiri was never separated from Ariel and Kfir and that at least they were always held and loved until the very end. The children were the same age as my own children. The thought of what they went through shakes me to the core,” she concluded.