Shiri Bibas’s sister lights parents’ menorah while on reserve duty in Gaza

Dana Silberman Sitton, the sister of murdered hostage Shiri Bibas and the only surviving member of the family, lit her parents’ Hanukkah menorah in Rafah, Gaza, on Sunday night while serving in IDF reserve duty.

“This menorah is among the very few items that survived the fire in my parents’ home,” said Silberman Sitton in remarks provided Monday by the IDF.

“We’re standing together and lighting it here on the soil of Gaza. I look at the halo of these candles and imagine the wind carrying their light and spreading it throughout the Strip, so that all our enemies will see it and know that this light cannot be extinguished,” she said.

Silberman Sitton, a reserve sergeant serving in the Gaza Division, lit candles on the eighth and final night of the holiday with the Golani Brigade commander, Col. Adi Ganon, and commanders and fighters from the division.

The menorah, from the home of Silberman Sitton’s parents, was only partially burned when Hamas terrorists invaded Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 massacre and set the Silbermans’ house on fire while the couple was inside.

Margit Shnaider Silberman, 63, who had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and her husband Yosef José Luis (Yossi) Silberman, 67, were killed in the fire.

It took approximately two weeks to find and identify their remains because the house burned to the ground.

Silberman Sitton’s sister and nephews, Shiri Bibas, 32, and her two sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, less than a year old, were kidnapped on October 7 by terrorists from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and murdered in captivity.

Her brother-in-law, Yarden Bibas, was taken hostage separately from his wife and children, and released from Hamas captivity in Gaza on February 1, 2025, under a ceasefire-hostage release deal.

Silberman Sitton and her family live in Moshav Yesha, some three and a half miles from Gaza.