Terror, Horror, and Our Commitment to Never Forget

On the day the bodies of Shiri Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Ariel Bibas, and Oded Lifshitz were returned, I was horrified to my core. How can a person murder a one-year-old baby with their bare hands? A four-year-old child? Defenseless individuals? And their mother? In such a cruel and inhumane manner? To me, there is no explanation other than pure Jew-hatred. Some may call it hatred of Israelis, but before anything else – it is hatred of Jews.

Hamas does not see people before them—not babies, not women, not the elderly, and certainly not a vision for peace and coexistence. This vile terrorist organization has one goal – to murder, to destroy, to sow terror and fear. This massacre was not an act of war, not "collateral damage" in battle. It was a cold-blooded execution.

As if the horror was not enough, we received yet another reminder of the enemy’s cruelty. Hamas returned the bodies in a celebratory ceremony, with Palestinian children and infants watching the return ritual—a grotesque celebration of the murder of innocent, kidnapped children. Even in the darkest horror films, no scriptwriter has dared to craft such a gruesome scene.

That night, I could not sleep. I woke in the middle of the night to the devastating news that the forensic institute reported that one of the returned bodies, allegedly that of Shiri Bibas, was in fact the body of a Gazan woman. My stomach turned. How much more cruelty can we endure? How much suffering must be inflicted upon grieving families? How many more times must we be forced to confront this brutal reality and take action?

There is no other country in the world that faces a catastrophe of this magnitude—such horrific murders and enemies whose sole ambition is to annihilate an entire nation. While countries around the world focus on their domestic affairs, Israel stands every single day against relentless terror, against states and organizations that openly declare their intention to wipe us off the map. Hamas is not alone; it is part of a broader global network of terrorism and antisemitism, supported by states that explicitly vow to destroy Israel. And us? We will continue to stand strong, determined to fight for our existence, for the future of our children.

It is our duty, every single one of us, to ensure that the world does not forget. Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization. There is no other way to define it. We must demand justice, apply all possible pressure, and dismantle this organization to its very foundations. We must make it clear—never will we accept captivity, never will we accept slaughter, and never will we accept relentless hatred against our people.

In every generation, enemies rise against us to destroy us, and the Holy One, blessed be He, delivers us from their hands. This is what I believe. And I believe that with the help of the IDF and through the unity that must always prevail among us, we will overcome every enemy. No force in the world will make us surrender, no terrorist will break us. We will continue to fight, we will continue to remember, and we will continue to triumph.