The Bibas family symbolised the horror of October 7

As I write these words, the heavens are crying. Coffins of (supposedly) four Jewish hostages, Shira Bibas and her babies Kfir and Ariel and Oded Lifshitz are being transferred in a sick display from the monsters in Gaza via the useless puppets called the International Red Cross, home to Israel.

The video of a terrified young mother being abducted into Gaza holding her two red-headed babies, surrounded by men forcing her to cover up and giving her orders in Arabic and English is one of the most well known images from October 7. The Bibas Family became a household name and few of us could see redheads without thinking of them, wondering what had become of them.

For Israel and Jews worldwide, the Bibas children were the symbol of the hostages, taken from their homes in pyjamas, some by gunmen, some by mobs of civilians. The whereabouts of Shiri and the children were a mystery since the day a video emerged of them having been taken to Khan Yunis by the terror group “Kataib Mujahadin”.

Over a year ago, Hamas claimed Shiri and the children were killed by an Israeli airstrike but provided no proof. They forced father Yarden, released just a few weeks ago, to film a video in captivity blaming Israel for the deaths of his wife and children.

The civilian hordes who came through the fence to rape, loot, murder, kidnap and steal destroyed not only families, but also the dreams of the most peacenik Israelis, those who for years had sent kites of peace over the fence, who dreamed of shared industrial zones, planned joint photography exhibits, and drove sick Palestinans to hospitals. Those like Lifshitz, 84 at the time of his kidnapping, who was a dedicated peace activist who spent decades driving Palestinians to medical appointments in Israel and working towards peace.

It is a shattering of dreams and hopes, of a worldview in which everyone would have a piece of land and a home to call their own, whether the inhabitants spoke Hebrew or Arabic. October 7 hit all Israelis hard, in a way no conventional war could have.

Rockets, terror attacks, shootings... these had all become a difficult and painful reality. But home invasions where generations of families are murdered, gang raped, butchered and abducted? These are not realities any Israeli was prepared for. Suddenly, our own homes were not safe. People began to lock doors and make plans in the event of an invasion. Many applied for gun licenses.

The detailed maps held by the terrorists with family names, homes, ages of children, pets... details given by those who worked in the villages, who knew the families, exposed the fact that those trusted by members of the kibbutz had betrayed them to the terrorists. A published phone call by a young man to his parents giddy with joy and pride as a told them he slaughtered 10 Jews with his bare hands urging them to look at their WhatsApp to see the visual evidence of the murderers he committed as they praise God and tell him to come back safe, forced us all to recognise that we have been living in a fantasy world and ignoring the festering rot beyond our border.

When I visited the ashes of Kfar Aza, I looked out over the “border” and wondered how people who live so close, whose houses I could see clearly, could see the world so differently than we do.

The barbaric kidnapping of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel, the grotesque display of posters, coffins draped in propaganda, slogans and images of the dead beneath an image of Bibi as the devil is part of the psychological warfare Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Qassam Brigades play at every turn. They aim to defeat us emotionally, spiritually, mentally and eventually physically by removing our sense of safety and humanity. Morality is not a value they hold. Nothing but death is sacred to them.

Exactly how the Bibas family died is irrelevant. It’s the same as claiming Anne Frank died of Typhus and not the Nazis who took the teenager to Auschwitz and Belsen.

The thing we must remember is this: the evil ones take every opportunity to traumatise and divide the Jewish people. In the words of Agam Berger, former Hamas captive: "When we were there, and they saw our division, it made them happy. They said that when we are together, it is strength."

To honour the Bibas’s, Oded Lifshitz and all of the hostages, living and gone, we must remain united and never give the enemy what they want. The Jewish People united can never be defeated.