Israel rages as slain hostages returned: A nation calls for vengeance

Today, Israel stands at a crossroads of grief and fury as the bodies of Shiri Bibas, her sons Ariel (4) and Kfir (9 months old at abduction), and Oded Lifshitz (84) were handed over by Hamas in Gaza, 503 days after their abduction on October 7, 2023. The return of the four black coffins, draped in Israeli flags during a solemn IDF ceremony, has shattered a nation—and ignited a firestorm of calls for revenge that threatens to reshape the fragile ceasefire brokered in January.

A Morning of Mourning

At 9:00 AM IST, Hamas staged a televised handover in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, delivering the coffins to the Red Cross in a ceremony critics decried as propaganda. A Hamas commander and Red Cross official signed documents on a stage, the coffins starkly displayed—a move that enraged Israelis watching from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. By 10:30 AM, IDF forces received the remains inside Gaza, where a rabbi oversaw a quiet ritual before their transport to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute for identification, a process expected to conclude within 48 hours.

The Bibas family—Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir—had become haunting symbols of the October 7 massacre, their red hair emblazoned on posters and their abduction video etched into national memory. Kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside Yarden Bibas, who was freed alive on February 1 after 486 days, their fate had hung in limbo. Hamas claimed in November 2023 that Israeli airstrikes killed them, a narrative reiterated today, though unverified. Oded Lifshitz, an 83-year-old peace activist and journalist from the same kibbutz, was taken with his wife Yocheved (released October 24, 2023); Islamic Jihad claimed today he too died in an airstrike.

A Nation’s Heart Breaks—and Hardens

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “a very difficult day for the State of Israel—a shocking day, a day of grief,” addressing a nation where orange balloons, symbolizing the Bibas children’s fiery locks, have marked protests for over a year. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum mourned “Shiri’s endless kindness, Ariel’s love for Batman, Kfir’s radiant smile, and Oded’s devotion to peace,” urging swift action for the 69 hostages still in Gaza.

But beneath the tears, a tide of vengeance swells. At Hostages Square, mourners in orange wept as footage of the handover played, yet their words turned sharp. Or Benaroya, a cashier, told reporters, “Justice means killing everyone involved—even those not in Hamas, the people who support them. They all have to pay.” Sagi Vanunu, a Jaffa restaurant worker, demanded Israel “declare a world war against Gaza” after Saturday’s planned release of six more living hostages.

Voices of Retribution

The government echoed this fury. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi vowed to “bring Hamas to the gates of hell,” while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir repeated the call hours later. In the Knesset, opposition lawmaker Yaakov Asher halted proceedings to recite a prayer: “Our Father, our King, avenge the blood of Your servants that was shed.” The rhetoric hints at a military reckoning beyond the ceasefire’s delicate terms, which have already freed 19 hostages and now delivered four bodies.

A chilling public manifesto circulating today captures this sentiment in stark prose: “The moment the small bodies of the Bibas brothers and their mother are identified at Abu Kabir, there will be no room for further dialogue. The Prime Minister will stand before the nation, and there the order will be given—an order that will restore our honor and respond to the atrocity with an iron fist. ‘Conquer.’ The skies over Israel will turn black… from hundreds of planes, loaded with all the goodness sent by Uncle America. Every explosion will be a cry of vengeance… A pillar of smoke—raw, violent powder—will descend upon Gaza, as hundreds of tanks burst into the city like a natural disaster… The footsteps of thousands of our soldiers… will shake the ground… a step of memory, pride, hope, revival, and revenge.”

The text, penned by The Shadow, an Israeli rapper, blogger and right-wing political activist, frames the kidnappers not as Hamas alone but as “hate-filled civilians—people devoid of humanity and conscience, driven by a single dream: our destruction.” It ends with a warning: “They will feel our vengeance in every step we take until the end of days.”

A Fragile Ceasefire at Risk

The deaths come amid the first phase of a January ceasefire deal, with six more hostages due for release on February 22. Hamas has offered to free all 69 remaining captives in a single batch during phase two, tied to a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza—a prospect now shadowed by rising calls for retribution. The Bibas family’s forensic results could tip the scales: if evidence points to execution or neglect rather than airstrikes, as Hamas claims, the pressure for escalation may become unstoppable.

For Yarden Bibas, reunited with his nation but not his family, the wait continues. Released gaunt and haunted, he had doubted Hamas’s claims of their deaths—hope now extinguished by the coffins’ arrival. For Oded Lifshitz’s family, the loss of a man who spent decades advocating coexistence with Palestinians cuts deeper still.

A Step of Memory—and Fury

As Israelis await forensic confirmation, the nation grapples with a “collective sense of stinging failure,” as Haaretz’s Anshel Pfeffer put it. Kfir’s birthdays in captivity, marked by orange balloons, and Oded’s quiet heroism have fused into a narrative of innocence betrayed. The manifesto’s vision—of planes darkening the sky, tanks roaring, and soldiers marching with photos of “two redheaded babies” in their cockpits—may yet remain rhetoric. But today, it resonates with a people poised between mourning and mobilizing, their grief a fuel for vengeance that could redefine this war’s next chapter.