BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Thousands of people gathered in Buenos Aires on Monday to honor the memory of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, along with the other victims of the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, and to call for the release of all remaining hostages being held by the terror group in Gaza.
An estimated 15,000 people attended the demonstration, waving Israeli flags and orange handkerchiefs — an homage to the red-headed Bibas children — in an event marked by emotion, sadness and remembrance.
The Bibas family, which held mixed Argentine, Israeli and German citizenship, became a symbol of the struggle to return the hostages from the Strip. At 4 years old and 9 months old, respectively, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were the youngest captives to remain in Gaza. Their bodies, along with that of their mother Shiri, who was 32 at the time of her kidnapping, were returned to Israel last week, laying to rest the last hopes that they might come home alive.
They were among the 251 people taken hostage on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas gunmen stormed across the border, killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians.
Four of the remaining hostages being held in the Strip are Argentine citizens.
The event was organized by the AMIA Jewish Community Center; the DAIA, which is the umbrella organization of Argentina’s Jewish community; the Argentine Zionist Organization; and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The demonstration began with a candle-lighting ceremony by Argentine relatives of hostages and victims of the Hamas atrocities marked by emotion. As they embraced each other, one cried out, pleading for the well-being of their loved one. Even without the aid of a microphone, the anguished cry pierced the crowd.
Israel’s ambassador to Argentina, Eyal Sela, addressed the attendees, firmly holding the Hamas terror group responsible for the deaths of the Bibas children and mother, and excoriating Hamas for the horrific and cynical manner in which it returned the victims’ bodies to Israel.
“The way Ariel and Kfir’s bodies were returned and what they have done with Shiri’s remains are among the most macabre actions of evil in the world. Nazism was the evil of the last century, and radical Islam is the evil of this century […] From here, together, we demand the freedom of all hostages — the living to be reunited with their families, the dead to be laid to rest,” Sela said.
Hamas paraded the caskets with the bodies in a propaganda-filled ceremony. It was later discovered that they had sent back the body of an unidentified Gazan woman instead of Shiri Bibas.
It was only after threats from Israel that her body was returned. Forensic reports indicated that the Bibas family were killed by their captors with their bare hands and not in an IDF airstrike as Hamas claimed.
Shiri’s husband Yarden, who was captured separately, was released alive in the latest deal.
The ambassador also thanked Argentine President Javier Milei and his government for “the solidarity they have shown and for the decree establishing two days of national mourning.”
As the event neared its conclusion, the crowd raised their handkerchiefs, covering the street in orange. The brilliant orange sunset blanketing the sky seemed to echo their anti-terror message as they commemorated the murdered victims and desperately pleaded for the immediate release of all the hostages.