‘We love you the most’: Orange-tinted Bibas family gravestone unveiled
Headstone erected one month after funeral above shared casket recalls Shiri as ‘funny and sensitive,’ Ariel as ‘a child of light and love’ and Kfir for ‘loving hugs and cuddles’
A month after Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas were laid to rest in Israel, the gravestone for the three slain hostages was unveiled at a family ceremony on Thursday.
An orange-tinted slab marks the final resting place of Shiri and her two young sons, who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, and murdered by their captors in Gaza in late November 2023. Their bodies were returned to Israel by Hamas last month and buried together in a single casket.
The orange color came to symbolize the effort to free the Bibas family, inspired by the vivid orange hair of Ariel and Kfir.
Shiri, who was 32 when she was killed, is memorialized on the stone as “the best daughter, wife, mother and sister we could ask for. Funny, sensitive, loving and watching over everyone always,” the inscription reads, noting that her nickname was “mishmish,” meaning apricot in Hebrew.
The inscription for Ariel, nicknamed “Chuki,” who was 4 when he was murdered, says he was “a wonderful son, mischievous and funny, with a bashful smile. Beloved by everyone, a child of light and love.”
Kfir, who was slain before his 1st birthday, is remembered as “loving hugs and cuddles, a sweet and captivating baby, always with a smile and rolling laughter,” with the nickname “pupik,” which means belly button.
The headstone also includes English lyrics from the song “I Thank You Child” by Zakk Wylde: “It was you who made living all worth the while/ Oh lovin’ you it’s the best.” Underneath it, the family wrote in Hebrew: “We love you the most and always, you’ll always be in our hearts.”
30 יום לאריאל, כפיר ושירי ביבס ????
ישראל קטורזה, שליווה כל התקופה את אלי, אבא של ירדן מבקש סליחה.
להבדיל, ירדן ביבס עוד מחכה לביקור של @netanyahu בניר עוז.״במלאות 30 יום לפטירתם של שירי, כפיר ואריאל ז״ל חשוב לזכור
שציפינו לסוף אחר.
שמח יותר.
התמונה של שירי מחובקת עם אריאל… pic.twitter.com/AI5B2ptGNH— ????️????????חגית קלימן – Hagit Klaiman????????????️???? (@klaiman14) March 27, 2025
Shiri and her two young sons were kidnapped amid the Hamas onslaught of October 7 from their home, and held captive in Gaza until they were murdered. Her husband, Yarden, was kidnapped separately and returned to Israel on February 1, 2025, as part of a ceasefire deal, to the news of his family’s uncertain fate.
Hamas had long said that Shiri, Ariel and Kfir had been killed in captivity, although Israel did not confirm their deaths until their bodies were returned in late February 2025. The IDF said that forensic evidence showed that they were murdered “in cold blood” and “with bare hands” and that their captors committed atrocities to hide the evidence — contrary to Hamas’s claim that the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Shiri’s parents, Margit and Yossi Silberman, were murdered on October 7 in Nir Oz.
At the funeral for Shiri, Ariel and Kfir at the Tsohar cemetery near Nir Oz on February 26, a heartbroken Yarden apologized for being unable to save his family: “Shiri, I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you all.”
