This article was written on February 19, 2024, when persistent rumors about the death of the Bibas children tore at our hearts. I made a deal with my editor then: I would write the article and pray it would never be published and that I would not receive payment for it. We are now forced to publish it, with hearts shattered to pieces.
Pure Terror
The video released by the IDF spokesperson documenting the moments when the three family members – Shiri Bibas and her two small children – are led down a side street in Khan Younis, one lioness mother and two red-haired cubs, drives us mad. Why? Because it looks easy, so easy. Almost banal.
Like a YouTube DIY video: "How to kidnap a beautiful, sweet Jewish family that never harmed anyone, step by step." How? Cross the border fence on an ATV, kidnap a family from Nir Oz, transfer them from the ATV to a pickup truck, cross back over the fence, drive to Khan Younis, get out, cover them with a blanket and walk to a hiding place. How simple is the pure terror that gives an entire nation no rest.
Leave aside the nation. For anyone who has a heart. For anyone who has a mother or child they love. This woman, Shiri Bibas, in a pink dress holding two sweet, innocent, ginger-haired children, has haunted our dreams since that day. Her gaze follows us everywhere, like a painting in a museum. How can one breathe like this? (This rhetorical question is not directed at United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, who declared in an interview with Sky News that Hamas is not a terrorist organization but a political group. Apparently just semantics.)
She is Goodness, Compassion, Gentleness
And precisely because this video is not staged, because it captures a moment none of those filmed knew was being documented – it is more terrifying. In the video we see Shiri being led down a sandy path. Her steps are heavy. She doesn't scream. Doesn't resist. She knows she has no chance. Seven armed men surround her. It's worth their effort because from their perspective she is a bargaining chip. Her children are bargaining chips. The villains cover her with a blanket and only little Ariel's orange head peeks out above. She is in her role. The role of a mother. She wraps her children, hugs them, protects them. What else can she do against absolute evil? She is goodness, compassion, gentleness. I imagine her continuing to fight for them, for their sake, every terrible moment during these days of darkness.
It seems she is alone on that street. Just her and the children and the armed men. But she isn't, and never will be. There is an entire nation of lions behind her. A nation that has been fighting for months to change the balance of that terrible day when evil ruled. A nation that is winning. A nation that won't stop until everyone returns and all the despicable ones are ground to dust.
So read this well, you monsters: We won't stop. We will defeat you and we will bring back the hostages down to the last one. And read this sentence several times so it sinks deep into your twisted minds: You will never again have the power to harm the world. Not even a fraction of the power you had then. Only when all this comes true, only then will we breathe steadily again. Only then will we sleep.
