The images haunt us: a young mother, Shiri Bibas, ripped from the heart of ordinary life, clutching her two small red-haired children, four-year-old boy Ariel and nine-month-old baby Kfir, their faces etched with fear as they are dragged away to Gaza.
This scene, filmed by the terrorists who stormed into Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, encapsulates the sheer brutality and inhumanity of Hamas’s actions.
It was one of many on that tragic morning, when the terrorists from Gaza killed, raped and tore apart countless families. It is a stark reminder that Hamas is not a legitimate political actor, but an extremely brutal organization whose sole purpose is to inflict suffering and destruction.
For over 16 months, the world watched in horror as Hamas paraded the Bibas family in propaganda items for psychological warfare. Yarden was forced to appear in a video after being told his family had been killed – a cruel manipulation that exemplified Hamas’s sadistic treatment of hostages.
Now, with Yarden’s recent release, the full extent of the horror has become clear.
His reunion with freedom came at a devastating price: his children were killed by their captors and his wife is still missing.
After holding them in unimaginable conditions, after subjecting them to fear, deprivation, and possibly worse, the Gaza terrorists murdered the two little brothers already in November 2023. A baby, a four-year-old child. Their remains were returned to Israel on Thursday. However, in a despicable act of unspeakable horror, Hamas substituted the body of an unknown woman for that of Shiri, whose fate is yet unknown.
The Bibas family’s tragedy is not just a personal catastrophe; it is a stark reminder of Hamas’s true nature. These are not freedom fighters or resistance members – they are monsters who deliberately target civilians, murder children, and inflict maximum pain and psychological torture on their victims. The hostages who have been freed recount horrors that are difficult to comprehend—beatings, starvation, sexual violence, and the constant terror of execution.
Hamas does not wage war like a military force; it commits war crimes as a matter of policy. These are not the actions of human beings; they are the hallmarks of a depraved ideology that glorifies violence and revels in suffering.
The murder of Ariel and Kfir, the fear about the uncertain fate of Shiri, the torture Yarden endured, the ongoing captivity of other hostages – these are not aberrations in Hamas’s behavior. They are its essence.
This is an organisation that builds terror tunnels instead of schools, that uses hospitals as military headquarters, that siphons humanitarian aid to fuel its war machine. Their rule has brought nothing but misery to Gaza, while enriching their own leadership.
Those who continue to support or make excuses for Hamas must reckon with these facts. Every justification, every attempt to contextualize their actions, every “but” that follows condemnation of their atrocities, serves only to enable more suffering. Hamas has shown repeatedly that they have no interest in peace, no regard for human life – Palestinian or Israeli – and no vision beyond perpetual conflict and destruction.
Yet despite this undeniable reality, Hamas still finds apologists in the West — activists and politicians who, whether out of ignorance or malice, embolden its atrocities by justifying its violence. Every rally that glorifies Hamas, every voice that downplays its crimes, only extends the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike. To defend Hamas is to defend barbarism. To support Hamas is to sabotage any hope for peace in the region.
The international community must unite in recognising that there can be no peace, no stability, and no future for either Israelis or Palestinians while Hamas maintains its grip on Gaza. Their elimination is not just an Israeli security imperative – it is a moral duty for anyone who believes in human dignity and the possibility of peace in the region.
The Bibas family’s story should serve as a wake-up call. The Bibas family, and all the victims of Hamas’s terror, deserve justice. Hamas’s reign of terror must end. Not just for Israel’s security, not just for the future of Gaza, but for the very possibility of a future where children like Ariel and Kfir might grow up without fear of being torn from their parents’ arms.
There can be no peace while Hamas continues to rule. If the international community truly seeks justice, if it keenly cares about innocent lives, then it must stand firm: Hamas must be dismantled, its terror eradicated, and its stranglehold on Gaza broken. The path to peace in the region begins with the end of Hamas.
(Guy Nir is Spokesperson of Israeli Embassy in India. Views are personal)
–IANS
int/as
