Israelis in Deep Mourning, Palestinians in Joyous Celebration

"We share in the deep sorrow of the Lifshitz family. Today, 503 days after the October 7 massacre, we have determined that Oded Lifshitz was murdered in captivity over a year ago."

"[Lifshitz was] murdered in captivity by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization."

Dr. Chen Kugel, head,  National Center of Forensic Medicine, Israel

 

"503 agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end."

"Now we can mourn the husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who has been missing from us since October 7."

"Our family’s healing process will begin now and will not end until the last hostage is returned."

Lifshitz family statement

Hamas on Thursday put on a macabre handover ceremony in central Gaza to return the bodies of four Israeli hostages taken on October 7, 2023.   CNN

"Please, world], continue doing everything possible [to ensure all hostages return home]."

"Sadly, my family hasn’t returned to me yet. They are still there. My light is still there, and as long as they’re there, everything here is dark."

"Thanks to you, I was brought back - help me bring the light back to my life."

Yarden Bibas, husband of Shiri Bibas, father of Ariel 4, and Kfir Bibas, 10 months

 

A Hamas terrorist stands on a stage in Khan Younis, Gaza, next to the coffins of four Israeli hostages.

Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Four coffins, four Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, finally returned to their families in Israel for burial. Four souls murdered by Palestinian terrorists; each of those deaths represent a 'victory' to those soulless ghouls for whom the handover was an occasion of pomp and ceremony whose cynicism and cruelty plumbed the depths of human depravity. All the more so the sadism involved in returning not the body of the mother of the two little boys, but that of a Palestinian Gazan woman in her stead. An 'error' rectified the following day with smirking cruelty.

 

The caskets were carried by Hamas members through an organized crowd of Palestinian civilians from Gaza; men, women and children in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza City. The transfer was livestreamed by The Associated Press, CNBC, CNN, with hordes of Palestinians celebrating, loud music enlivening the event.  The American news networks there to witness and to convey in living technicolour the victory parade of murdered infants, their mother, an elderly peacemaker who made a specialty of catering to the needs of his Palestinian neighbours from his kibbutz in southern Israel.

 

A stage had been built by Hamas to showcase the event as a triumph. The backdrop held a caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, showing him as a bloodsucking vampire, an antisemitic trope that Hitler would have approved of. The Bibas family is shown below, flooded in red, symbolic of their deaths. Demonstrative of the way they died, cruelly. The infants by strangulation, their bodies mangled to leave the impression that an Israeli airstrike had caused their deaths. 

In some of the featured videos of this sinister event, Palestinian children were shown dancing on the stage. "I have no words. Palestinian children in Gaza celebrating after the Bibas babies' and their mother's along with Oded Lipschitz's coffins were presented on the same stage. Oded used to drive Palestinian children to hospitals in Israel for treatment", wrote Israeli writer Hen Mazzig. 

"Their bodies were handed over to the Red Cross today after Hamas paraded them in Gaza in a shocking display of cruelty and propaganda."

"Hamas's treatment of these victims in death is as abhorrent as their treatment in life. The terror group labelled each casket with 'Date of arrest: October 7' -- a blatant distortion of the truth."

"These innocent civilians were not arrested; they were violently kidnapped from their homes during Hamas's brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and murdered in captivity."

World Jewish Congress

For the earlier release of other, living hostages, freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a lopsided ratio of four hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were handed life sentences for the murder of Israelis, the celebratory protocol was somewhat different. The women were crowded by masked, uniformed terrorists holding their rifles, crushed close to the vehicles that would carry them to freedom by the press of Palestinian civilians taking joy and pride in the event.

 

The former hostages paraded through jeering crowds, forced to smile for photographs with their captors. For the occasion of the release of the four dead Israelis, unlike the previous events where, despite the disgusting spectacle of terrorist cheerleading, Israelis welcoming the hostages home were buoyant and joyful. On this occasion,  however, a solemn hush descended, widespread grief and suffering seen on the faces of those paying their respect to the homecoming of two little boys, their mother and an 83-year-old hostage. 

"Our hearts -- the hearts of n 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."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog

Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas are shown in this photo.