WATCH: Thousands line streets for Bibas family funeral

Thousands of Israelis, many waving national flags or orange balloons, lined the streets on Wednesday morning as a funeral procession took place for the three murdered members of the Bibas family whose capture by Hamas terrorists on 7 October 2023 gripped the world.

Shiri Bibas and her two red-headed sons, Ariel, aged four at the time of the attack on Kibbutz Nir Oz, and baby Kfir, just nine months old, were finally returned to their devastated family last week — though not before Hamas played another cruel psychological trick by sending back the remains of an unknown Gazan woman, instead of Shiri, aged 32.

Crowds began gathering in Rishon Lezion this morning, with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urging Israelis to stand alongside the route with Israeli flags in their honour.

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The funerals were due to be held near the family’s home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, at a private ceremony in Zohar, with eulogies to be live-streamed from 11:30 a.m.(9.30 am UK time).

Yarden Bibas, the bereaved husband and father, himself released from captivity in Gaza only weeks ago, expressed gratitude to the crowds, who stood on the roads as the funeral vans, bearing the yellow ribbon on their bonnets symbolising all the hostages, drove slowly towards the cemetery, accompanied by a motorcycle police escort. The orange balloons echoed an earlier campaign on behalf of the Bibas family when it was hoped that the children were still alive.

Hamas repeatedly maintained that the family had died months ago as a result of an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. But forensic examinations which took place in Israel when the bodies were finally recovered revealed that not only had the children been murdered — but then had been mutilated so that it appeared they had died as a result of Israeli bombing. This information was made public at Yarden Bibas’s request. He was directly duped by Hamas on his release, when he was led to believe his family had survived the 7 October attack. The terrible news that they were dead was only broken to him when he finally returned to Israel.

Yarden’s sister Ofri Bibas,  wrote in a social media post: “Through the window, I see today a broken nation.” She added: “We will not rise or be rehabilitated until the last of the hostages is home.”

The presidential residence in Jerusalem was lit up in orange in tribute to the family and much Knesset discussion of legislation was put on hold until after the funerals.