Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 20, 2025
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, February 20, 2025
Somber Tel Aviv memorial kicks off with moment of silence for 4 slain hostages
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People attend a memorial for four slain hostages returned by Hamas, at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, February 20, 2025. (Alon Gilboa/Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)
Some 1,500 people gather at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square for a memorial, hours after Hamas returned what it said is the remains of hostages Oded Lifshitz, Shiri Silberman Bibas, and the latter’s young sons Ariel and Kfir. Lifshitz’s body has since been definitively identified.
Israeli flags dot the crowd, many featuring a Star of David interspersed with a yellow ribbon representing the hostages.
Pop star Omer Adam opens the ceremony with a rendition of Chava Alberstein’s 1988 song, “We Are All a Single Human Tissue.”
The ceremony’s title is a lyric from the song: “If one of us departs from us.”
The performance is followed by a moment of silence in memory of the four hostages.
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