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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Wednesday, February 26, 2025

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Yarden Bibas covering the coffin of his wife Shiri and sons Ariel and Kfir during the slain hostages' funeral near Kibbutz Nir Oz, February 26, 2025. (Eitan Uner/Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Yarden: ‘Shiri, guard me so I don’t sink into darkness’

Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas buried in a single casket: ‘They will remain together’

By Jessica Steinberg and ToI Staff

Mother and two young sons, murdered while held hostage by Gaza terrorists, laid to rest; ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you all,’ says Yarden Bibas; family laments their lost future together

A makeshift memorial in front of portraits of murdered Israeli hostages Shiri (L), Ariel (CL), and Kfir (CR) Bibas, as well as Oded Lifshitz (R) at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv on February 25, 2025. (Jack Guez / AFP)

ToI podcastDaily Briefing Feb. 26: Day 509 – Bibas family buried as Hamas to release 4 hostages’ remains

By Amanda Borschel-Dan, Lazar Berman, Tal Schneider and Sue Surkes

Full Text

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you all’: Yarden Bibas’s eulogy for wife Shiri, sons Ariel and Kfir

His family murdered in Gaza, freed hostage says he misses nibbling on baby Kfir, hopes there are butterflies in heaven for Ariel; asks slain wife: ‘Guard me so I don’t sink into darkness’

Yarden Bibas (R) with his sister Ofri as he eulogizes his wife Shiri and two young sons Kfir and Ariel, at Tsoher Regional Cemetery on February 26, 2025 (Screen grab/YouTube)

Yarden Bibas carries flowers at the funeral of his wife Shiri and sons Ariel and Kfir, near Kibbutz Nir Oz, February 26, 2025. (Eitan Uner/ Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

Ballads from Bibas family soundtrack play at funeral of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir

By Jessica Steinberg

People pay their respects during the funeral procession of late Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas and her children Ariel and Kfir, at Gan Yavne Intersection, February 26, 2025. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)

With orange balloons and cries of ‘sorry,’ masses line route of Bibas funeral procession

By Stuart Winer, ToI Staff and Agencies

In outpouring of sorrow, public stands along 60-kilometer route; Bibas relatives say Yarden ‘apologizes for not being able to come down and personally hug each and every one of you’

L to R: Air traffic control tower at Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv (Instagram), the Knesset in Jerusalem (Dani Shem Tov/Knesset Spokesman), and the President's Residence in Jerusalem (President's Residence Spokesman), all lit up in orange in honor of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel, 4, and Baby Kfir, who were murdered in Hamas captivity and will be laid to rest in Israel on February, 26, 2025.

Knesset, Ben Gurion Airport illuminated orange to honor murdered Bibas family

Promoted CampaignBrandeis: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

Brandeis: Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (BOLLI)

We are a year-round community of intellectually curious adults, age 50 and above, who explore a liberal arts curriculum through study groups, seminars, lecture series and events.

Op-Ed: Day 509 of the war

What Israel’s leaders, Donald Trump, and the rest of the free world owe Yarden Bibas

Heartbroken, he apologized for failing to protect his wife and two small sons from Hamas; But it’s we, of course, who owe him the apology and who must root out the death cult Islamist ideology

Yarden Bibas eulogizes his wife Shiri and two young sons Kfir and Ariel, at Tsoher Regional Cemetery on February 26, 2025 (Screen grab/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a graduation ceremony for cadets in the IDF Ground Forces officers' course, and holds up a photo of slain hostages Shiri, Kfir, and Ariel Bibas, February 23, 2025. (Haim Tzach/GPO)

Bibas family tells Netanyahu to ‘shut up,’ as he details the murders of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir

A Red Cross vehicle in Gaza ahead of the release by Hamas of four slain hostages and by Israel of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, February 26, 2025. (Screenshot: X; used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Live updates (closed)

Feb. 26: He was ‘sacrificed on a political altar,’ says brother of slain hostage Itzik Elgarat

By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff

Trump: ‘Vicious’ Hamas thinks ‘they’re doing us a favor by sending us bodies’ * Freed captive Liri Albag: Hamas tried to prevent us from celebrating Jewish festivals; we did anyway

9:47 pm

He was 'sacrificed on a political altar,' says brother of slain hostage set for return
9:23 pm

Ex-hostage Liri Albag: Hamas tried to prevent us from celebrating Jewish festivals; we did anyway
9:03 pm

Red Cross en route to handover site in Gaza to receive 4 slain hostages

An armed member of the Hamas terror group precedes International Red Cross vehicles as they arrive in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip to receive three Israeli hostages being freed on February 22, 2025. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)

Hamas: Deal reached for ‘simultaneous’ release of 4 slain hostages, Palestinian prisoners

By Jacob Magid and Lazar Berman

Agreement confirmed by Israeli official, who says the captives’ remains will be returned on Wednesday; ToI told that if no further hostages released by March 8, ceasefire will end

Shira Lankin Sheps

The world is awash in ginger today

Yarden, your family changed all of us. They were the front line against evil, highlighting right in the fight against absolute wrong

Rest in peace, little lion cubs of God

I’m sorry I failed to convey the horror of your abduction; I’m sorry we didn’t make the earth shake, until your safe return. Oh, how the entire nation has loved you

From the Blogs

A nation united in grief: No words can heal our aching hearts

President Herzog: ’If there is still mercy in this world, let the beautiful faces of Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir be a heart-piercing cry’

‘We fought for peace, were attacked by those we helped’: Yocheved Lifshitz parts from Oded

By Jessica Steinberg

Family, friends, neighbors and comrades bury Oded Lifshitz, 83, murdered in captivity in Gaza and brought home for burial in Kibbutz Nir Oz, which he helped establish

Former hostage Yocheved Lifshitz (right) and her son Arnon, at the funeral of her husband and his father, slain hostage Oded Lifshitz, at Kibbutz Nir Oz on February 25, 2025. (Paulina Patimer/The Hostages Families Forum Headquarters); inset: Oded Lifshitz (Amiram Oren)

Inside story

Hamas hostage ceremonies angered US, spurring pressure for plan to push group out

Diplomats say Hamas’s use of performances as show of force has roiled Trump administration, which now more forcefully demands Arab allies come up with plan to oust terror group

Israeli hostages Tal Shoham left, and Avera Mengisto are put on stage by Hamas in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

InterviewTop Abbas aide: Hamas must step aside, let Palestinian Authority govern Gaza

Trump shares AI music video reimagining Gaza Strip as glitzy beachfront haven

Cocktails by the pool with Netanyahu, bearded belly dancers, Elon Musk lookalikes, and gold statues of Trump feature in 30-second clip posted by US president, after his calls to expel Gazans

An AI-generated video, posted by US President Donald Trump to his Truth Social platform on February 26, 2025, depicts Trump (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) reclining on the beach in a future 'Riviera' in the Gaza Strip. (Screenshot)

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi at an Economic Affairs committee meeting at the Knesset, in Jerusalem, on December 18, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Senior ministers call for resettling Gaza, expelling Palestinians, return to war

By Jeremy Sharon and ToI Staff

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid presents a plan for the post-war Gaza Strip, in Washington DC, February 25, 2025. (Screenshot/FDD)

Lapid presents Gaza ‘day after’ plan in DC, urges extended Egyptian takeover

By Lazar Berman and Nava Freiberg

Screen capture from an undated video of Israeli influencer Max Veifer (left) during a conversation with two nurses from a hospital in Sydney, Australia. (X: Used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law)

Australian nurse indicted for threatening to kill Israeli patients in viral clip

By Agencies and ToI Staff

Sarah Abu Lebdeh charged with threatening violence to group; using carriage service to threaten to kill after she told influencer ‘I won’t treat [an Israeli patient], I will kill them’

Police stand near houses vandalized with anti-Israel slogans in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, Australia, December 11, 2024. (AP/Mark Baker)

Australian police charge seven for making Nazi salutes

By AFP and ToI Staff

Yael Alexander, mother of hostage Edan Alexander, speaks to The Times of Israel on February 23, 2025 (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)

Interview'

‘A bigger fight than anything imagined’: Edan Alexander’s mom battles for hostage son

By Jessica Steinberg

Yael Alexander, mother of soldier with dual US-Israeli citizenship, lives between realities of Israel, their New Jersey home and DC: ‘Since October 7, I feel like I’m on the edge of falling’

Israeli reporter Itai Anghel (left) walks through a crowd of Syrians in Damascus days after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, December 2024 (Screenshot/Channel 12)

'From here, they operated Hezbollah'

Days after Assad’s fall, Israeli reporter explores Iran’s ‘nerve center’ in Damascus

By Nava Freiberg

War reporter Itai Anghel finds piles of classified files, speaks to Syrian soldiers, and meets a Syrian Jew in ‘Uvda’ documentary aired Monday

Illustrative: An Israeli Air Force F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft flies over Haifa on September 24, 2024. (Jack Guez/AFP)

IDF hits multiple sites in Syria, Lebanon as Israel vows to maintain security

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Illustrative: People look on as Israeli soldiers patrol in the Syrian town of Jubata al-Khashab, in the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights, on December 20, 2024. (Aris MESSINIS / AFP)

IDF reportedly offering Syrians from buffer zone work in Israel

Lizzy Savetsky wears a Star of David top ahead of the United Jewish Appeal Generosity Gala in New York City, March 14, 2024. (Courtesy)

Pro-Israel influencer Lizzy Savetsky praises Meir Kahane clip, setting off firestorm

Other pro-Israel voices condemn normalization of extremist rabbi who urged expulsion of Arabs, while calls for mass transfers of Palestinians have moved into the mainstream

Israeli security forces seen during a military operation in the West Bank city of Qabatiya, January 10, 2025. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Shin Bet foiled terror plot by West Bank cell to use 100 kilogram mine against IDF

Two suspects detained as they headed to carry out shooting, info obtained from men reveals presence of large explosive device in Qabatiya; other members of cell also arrested

Cans of Chat Cola-branded aluminum cans are stacked, separated by cardboard pallets, on the production line at the Palestinian company's bottling plant in the West Bank city of Salfit, February 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Coca-Cola’s appeal in West Bank fizzles as war boosts demand for local look-alike

By AP and ToI Staff

More Headlines

Minister of Construction and Housing Yitzchak Goldknopf at the Knesset on November 11, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

UTJ threatens to bring down government unless conscription bill passed before budget

The Bank of Israel's main offices in Jerusalem, January 2, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/ Flash90)

Israeli banks told to set aside $839m to offer customers lower fees and other benefits

By Sharon Wrobel

Mossad chief David Barnea speaks at the INSS International Conference, February 26, 2025 (INSS)

Mossad chief backs Netanyahu over decision to hold off on Lebanon offensive

By Lazar Berman

Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman leads a committee meeting at the Knesset on February 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Bill giving coalition control of judicial ombudsman appointment cleared for final votes

By Jeremy Sharon

Family members of Haymanut Kasau attend meeting of the Knesset National Security Commitee dealing with the disappearance of the girl a year earlier when she was just nine-years-old, February 25, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

A year without a trace: Knesset panel reviews disappearance of Haymanut Kasau, aged 9

Evacuees from Kibbutz Be'eri at a hotel in the Dead Sea, October 20, 2023. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

One-fifth of Israelis displaced by war have lost their jobs, survey shows

By Reuters and Sharon Wrobel

Founders of Israeli startup Quantum Machines (from right to left): Dr. Yonatan Cohen, Dr. Itamar Sivan, and Dr. Nissim Ofek. (Ilya Melnikov)

Backed by Intel, Israeli quantum control startup pulls in $170 million investment

By Sharon Wrobel

Arab Israeli comedian Nidal Badarny. (Screenshot from Nidal Badarny's Instagram account)

Arab Israeli comedian arrested for making jokes about hostages, October 7 invasion

By Jeremy Sharon

Joseph Czuba, then 71, stands before Circuit Judge Dave Carlson for his arraignment at the Will County courthouse in Joliet, Illinois, October 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Trial opens for murder of six-year-old Palestinian boy in Chicago in wake of Oct. 7

By AP and ToI Staff

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addresses attendees at the Microsoft Ignite conference, November 19, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois. (AP Photo/ Charles Rex Arbogast, File)

Microsoft boots workers from meeting with CEO for protesting sale of services to IDF

By Agencies and ToI Staff

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24	25	26	27	28

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