Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displayed images of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, during an address at a combat officers’ graduation ceremony on Sunday, delivering a solemn message.
‘I want to show you something. I want to show you this picture of Shiri Bibas and her tender children, Ariel and Kfir Bivas. This picture says it all; I ask that you engrave it on the board of your hearts, so that you will always remember what we are fighting for and against whom we are fighting,’ Netanyahu told the graduates, according to Fox News’ translation of the Hebrew speech. ‘We are fighting to secure our existence against man-monsters who have risen to annihilate us.’
‘Already in the first days of the war, they murdered Shiri and her children in cold blood; they strangled the tender children with their own hands,’ Netanyahu said, holding up a photo of the Bibas family. ‘And if they could, they would have killed us all with the same cruelty, until our very last man. Against this we fight, and these monsters we must and can defeat – and defeat them we will. This is our mission, and this is your mission!’
‘As the defenders of our homeland, each of you is imbued with purpose, wielding sword and shield,’ he added. ‘We have high expectations of you, but I know that above all, you have expectations of yourselves.’
Hamas handed over the bodies of the two young brothers on Thursday, but initially returned the wrong remains for Shiri in what Netanyahu had decried as a ‘brazen violation of their agreement.’ The Israeli mother’s actual remains were handed over on Saturday and identified by Israeli forensic authorities to be Shiri following a standoff with the terrorist group. Also returned was the body of Oded Lifshitz, a fellow resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and who Israel says was murdered in captivity. The Israel Defense Forces said the boys’ bodies proved they were ‘murdered by terrorists in cold blood,’ despite Hamas previously claiming the brothers were killed in an airstrike.
In his speech Sunday, Netanyahu said President Donald Trump ‘sees eye to eye with us on everything related to Gaza.’
‘We support President Trump’s groundbreaking plan to allow free exit for Gazans, and to create a different Gaza,’ Netanyahu told the graduating combat officers.
‘I thank President Trump for his directive to supply Israel with vital weapons,’ Netanyahu said. ‘The new defensive and offensive arms will greatly aid us in achieving absolute victory. At the same time, we have approved enormous budgets for the domestic development of weapon systems – systems that will enhance our ability to stand up to our enemies on our own.’
The prime minister also laid out his government’s objectives. Netanyahu said Israeli forces ‘have eliminated most of Hamas’s organized strength’in Gaza.
‘But let there be no doubt: we will complete the war objectives, including this one, to the very end,’ he said. ‘It can be achieved through negotiation, and it can also be achieved by other means. From the start of the war, the conditions we set for its conclusion were clear – and they remain clear. All of our abductees, without exception, will return home. Hamas will not govern Gaza. Gaza will be purged, and its combat capability will be dismantled.’
Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said he plans to return to the region on Wednesday to negotiate an ‘extension’ of Phase One of the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.
Phase Two, Witkoff noted, includes ensuring Hamas will never return to government leadership in Gaza, which he predicts will not be a safe living environment for another 15 to 20 years and will require a lengthy reconstruction plan.
Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel contributed to this report.