Mourners holding flags and orange balloons lined highways in Israel on Wednesday as the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, who died while held captive in Gaza, were taken for burial.
Video of a terrified Shiri Bibas clutching her two redheaded sons, 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel, as they were taken to Gaza is etched in the country's memory.
During the release of the bodies in Gaza, Hamas militants displayed coffins on a stage labeled with Shiri’s name and those of her two boys as upbeat music blared.
The Bibas family's fate has become a symbol of the grief felt in Israel following the Hamas attack on October 7 2023.
Some 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the October 7 attack that triggered the war in Gaza and 251 were taken hostage.