{"id":243712,"date":"2025-02-21T11:06:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T11:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/fate-of-bibas-family-recalls-trauma-of-oct-7-renewing-fears-for-gaza-truce\/"},"modified":"2025-02-21T11:06:20","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T11:06:20","slug":"fate-of-bibas-family-recalls-trauma-of-oct-7-renewing-fears-for-gaza-truce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/fate-of-bibas-family-recalls-trauma-of-oct-7-renewing-fears-for-gaza-truce\/","title":{"rendered":"Fate of Bibas Family Recalls Trauma of Oct. 7, Renewing Fears for Gaza Truce"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/21\/multimedia\/21israel-assess-04-cjpb\/21israel-assess-04-cjpb-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Fate of Bibas Family Recalls Trauma of Oct. 7, Renewing Fears for Gaza Truce\" title=\"Fate of Bibas Family Recalls Trauma of Oct. 7, Renewing Fears for Gaza Truce\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For 16 months, the smiling faces of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, had been slowly receding into the background of Israeli life as their <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/11\/29\/world\/middleeast\/bibas-family-israel-gaza.html\" title=\"\">photographs<\/a> \u2014 posted on walls and bus stops soon after the family\u2019s abduction to Gaza in October 2023 \u2014 began to fade, tear and peel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Friday, the Bibas\u2019s lives and disturbing deaths were swept back to the forefront of Israel\u2019s collective consciousness in such a startling and unsettling way that it set off fresh alarm about the fate of the fragile cease-fire in Gaza and the high-level diplomatic efforts, which had <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/19\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-reconstruction-alternatives.html\" title=\"\">gathered momentum in recent days<\/a>, to extend the truce and end the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Early on Friday morning, the Israeli military <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/20\/world\/middleeast\/bibas-hostages-israel.html\" title=\"\">announced<\/a> that the body of Ms. Bibas \u2014 nominally <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/20\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hamas-hostages-bodies.html\" title=\"\">returned<\/a>, along with those of her sons, by Hamas to Israel on Thursday \u2014 appeared to be that of someone else. And an autopsy of the two boys, aged 4 and 8 months at the time of their abduction, revealed that they were killed by terrorists in Gaza, the military said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hamas, which had previously said they were killed in an Israeli missile strike, said in a statement that it was investigating the claims and suggested that Ms. Bibas\u2019s body might have been mistakenly confused for that of a dead Palestinian in the chaotic aftermath of an Israeli attack. Neither side\u2019s account could be independently verified. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The news set off a paroxysm of fury and agony in Israel rarely seen since the tumultuous days that followed <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2023\/12\/22\/world\/europe\/beeri-massacre.html\" title=\"\">Hamas\u2019s attack on Israel<\/a> on Oct. 7, 2023, when up to 1,200 people were killed and 251 were abducted, including Ms. Bibas and her sons, on the deadliest day in Israeli history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Responding to the military\u2019s announcement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returned to the language of vengeance that defined his speeches in the aftermath of that attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMay God avenge their blood,\u201d Mr. Netanyahu said in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/netanyahu\/status\/1892832154893107390\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">recorded speech<\/a> to the nation on Friday morning. \u201cAnd we will also have our vengeance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The seething tenor of Mr. Netanyahu\u2019s response was maintained across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister, said in a broadcast interview that the Bibas\u2019s treatment showed how \u201cthe majority of Gazans want to murder all of the Israelis.\u201d (<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pcpsr.org\/en\/node\/991\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Polling<\/a> last fall suggested that less than 40 percent of Gazan Palestinians supported the Oct. 7 attack, down from more than 70 percent early last year.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For some Israelis, the horror underlined the need to restart the war to defeat Hamas once and for all. The current truce is set to elapse in early March unless Hamas and Israel can agree to an extension. \u201cThe only solution is the destruction of Hamas, and this must not be postponed,\u201d said Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister, in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bezalelsm\/status\/1892836749165883674\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a post on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But others called for calm, arguing that the fate of the Bibas family exemplified why the truce needed to be extended to bring home roughly 70 hostages still held, both dead and alive, in Gaza.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe must remember our highest duty \u2014 to do everything in our power to bring every one of our kidnapped sisters and brothers home,\u201d Israel\u2019s mainly ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Isaac_Herzog\/status\/1892843547948155161\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cAll of them. Until the very last.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Six living Israeli hostages are set to be released on Saturday, and analysts said it was unlikely that Israel would do anything to jeopardize their freedom.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The long-term future of the truce seemed less clear. Arab leaders were <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/21\/world\/middleeast\/arab-leaders-plan-gaza.html\" title=\"\">set to meet<\/a> in Saudi Arabia on Friday to try to thrash out a proposal for Gaza\u2019s postwar reconstruction that would allow for the peaceful transfer of power from Hamas to an alternative Palestinian administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But in Israel, analysts speculated that the government would rather expel Hamas by force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf it were up to Netanyahu and his far-right partners, then next week \u2014 upon the completion of the first phase of the deal, with the return of four more bodies of fallen hostages \u2014 the path would be paved for the resumption of the war in Gaza,\u201d wrote Amos Harel, a commentator on military affairs for Haaretz, a left-leaning newspaper. \u201cThis time, they promise, without restraints.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Johnatan Reiss<!-- --> contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, and <!-- -->Rawan Sheikh Ahmad<!-- --> from Haifa, Israel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/21\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-hamas-bibas-hostages.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For 16 months, the smiling faces of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, had been slowly receding into the background of Israeli life as their photographs \u2014 posted on walls and bus stops soon after the family\u2019s abduction to Gaza in October 2023 \u2014 began to fade, tear and peel. On [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/21\/multimedia\/21israel-assess-04-cjpb\/21israel-assess-04-cjpb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4757,179329,17,18218,2622,43,32652,5552,38,4758,4628,5029,189385,40165,19437],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243712"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243712"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243714,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243712\/revisions\/243714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}