One of the saddest atrocities of October 7, 2023, was the abduction of the Bibas family by Arabs from Gaza. They abducted Kfir, who was only ten months old, and Ariel who was four years old, along with their mother Shiri, and beheaded their dog. When I joined a march to free the hostages near Columbia University in New York, I held up a sign with a picture of Kfir. I foolishly hoped that the Arabs who had murdered so many children on October 7 would spare the Bibas children and release them to Israel. They did release them, dead, in February 2025 as part of a ceasefire deal in which Israel released hundreds of prisoners, many of whom had committed violent acts of terrorism against Israel.
Releasing dead children did not make Hamas look good. So they came up with a solution, blame the deaths on Israel. Hamas claimed the children were killed by Israeli bombs. The Israelis did forensics and found that the children were strangled. Probably what happened was the children were crying and their Hamas captors decided to put an end to that annoyance.
The death of the Bibas children is still a problem for Palestinian propagandists, so they had Miss Palestine call them Palestinians and had her repeat the claim that they were murdered by Israel.
Using the Bibas children for anti-Israel propaganda extends around the world. Gift of the Givers, the self-described “largest disaster response, non-governmental organization (NGO) of African origin on the African continent,” decided to share a short video justifying the kidnapping of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir, and blaming Israel for their deaths.
David May wrote:
The clip that Gift of the Givers shared began with a gunpoint recording of a ragged Yarden Bibas, Ariel and Kfir’s father, in Hamas captivity, blaming Israel’s prime minister for the death of his wife and children.
The seemingly coerced condemnation was intended to prove Israel’s guilt -- and Hamas’ innocence.
The video then justified Shiri’s abduction by claiming that Palestinian terrorists “arrested” the “soldier,” and that she worked for the army and had been a member of Israel’s intelligence services. A Gazan fighter in the video even attempted to portray the kidnapping of children as a humanitarian gesture, saying, “upon her arrest, we allowed her to take her children out of mercy for them.” If those terrorists had an ounce of mercy, they would not have kidnapped babies into Gaza.
The most shocking use of the Bibas children for propaganda purposes was on October 7 of this year when flyers advertising anti-Israel demonstrations showed their pictures. This shows a calculated deviousness on the part of anti-Israel propagandists that would put Goebbels to shame. These propagandists has been so successful that there are massive anti-Israel protests taking place all over the world. It is testimony to how effective Arab propaganda against Israel is, that on the anniversary of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, they can bring out huge numbers of people to rally against Israel. Countries all over the world condemn Israel for fighting back against Hamas and are engaged in boycotts and divestment from Israel. France, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Andorra and Belgium have formally recognized a Palestinian state at the 80th session of the General Assembly (UNGA).
They join Canada, Australia, and Portugal, as well as the United Kingdom, which announced its recognition of a Palestinian state on September 21, 2025.
The hatred propagandists have generated against Israel is a source of power for extremist Muslims worldwide. For example Mamdani won the Democrat primary mayor of New York by the largest margin in history and his anti-Israel stance helped him gain the support to make that happen.
Israel is losing the war of public opinion to ruthless and sick propagandists for Hamas and radical Muslims are gaining power in the West as a result.
Image: Ted Eytan