Slain hostages, Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, will be laid to rest near the family’s home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Wednesday. The funeral brings an end to the Bibas family’s year and a half long nightmare after the trio, along with father and husband, Yarden Bibas, were kidnapped from their home on October 7, 2023. 

“The warm embrace, the love and the strength that you have sent us from all over Israel and the world strengthen us and accompany us during these moments of crisis,” the Bibas family shared in a statement on social media. “We are aware that many of you want to be there, to pay your respects, to express your love and to say your goodbyes together with us.”

Although the ceremony will be private, the Israeli public is encouraged to participate in a funeral procession ahead of their burial, the family announced on Monday. At the request of the family, no government ministers, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, will be attending the funeral, Israeli media reports. Relatives are arranging for the eulogies to be live-streamed.

The bodies of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir were returned to Israel last week as part of the recent ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement. Hamas, in a cruel twist, handed over the body of an unidentified Gazan woman that it claimed was the Bibas mother. After outrage erupted in Israel, Hamas delivered her body on Saturday morning. 

The two young boys — ages four and ten months old — were killed by Hamas “in cold blood” with their “bare hands” alongside their mother, Shiri, 32, in November 2023, Israeli officials announced over the weekend. Their assessment runs contrary to Hamas’s longstanding claim that the trio were killed in an Israeli airstrike during the war. 

Shiri’s husband, and father of their two children, Yarden Bibas, 35, was returned to Israel on February 1st after spending nearly 500 days in captivity in Gaza. 

The Bibas family became closely followed both in Israel and internationally after videos of their abduction from the Nir Oz kibbutz on October 7 went viral online. One clip, taken by Hamas terrorists during the attack, shows a visibly distressed Shiri clutching the two red headed boys wrapped in a blanket in her arms. Kfir was the youngest Israeli hostage taken into Gaza on October 7. 

Hamas later released photos showing Mr. Bibas bloodied and surrounded by armed terrorists. Both of Shiri Bibas’s parents, who also lived on the kibbutz, were killed in the attack. One in four residents of the Nir Oz kibbutz were either murdered or kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. 

Yarden Bibas’s sister, Ofri Bibas Levy, said on Sunday that the public’s support “moves” her brother “very much” but that “Yarden is still trying to come to terms with the horrible news.” She said that the family went from “huge joy” over Yarden’s safe return to “deep sadness and shock” upon learning the fate of Shiri and the boys. 

The funeral of one of Nir Oz’s founders, Oded Lifshitz, 83, who was kidnapped from the kibbutz and murdered by Hamas in Gaza, will take place on Thursday. Lifshitz was a lifelong peace activist who helped transport Palestinian cancer patients to Israel for treatment. His body was returned to Israel over the weekend along with the two Bibas boys. Oded’s wife Yocheved was also taken into Gaza but was returned to Israel during the November 2023 hostage deal.