In 1939, a man I used to know was walking down the street in Czechoslovakia with his wife and two young children, one a baby. The Nazis had just invaded his country. A Nazi officer stopped him asking for his papers. When it was clear the young man was Jewish the officer picked up the baby by its feet and smashed its skull against the iron railings in the street. Then he lifted the toddler and did the same to it. My friend and his wife were forced to witness the murder of their children. The officer then drew his pistol and shot the children’s mother, leaving the father alive. He was sent to a concentration camp, which he miraculously survived.

But whether he survived witnessing the brutal murder of his wife and children is another matter.

Move on to 2025, the war in Gaza. A young mother and her two infant children were taken hostage on the 7th of October 2023. After 17 months in captivity Israelis looked forward to their release by Hamas in February 2025.

Instead, three black coffins were ceremoniously presented to the waiting crowd. Inside were the bodies of 4 year Ariel and 18 months old baby Kfir. In the 3rd coffin, instead of Siri Bibas lay the body of an unknown Palestinian woman.

Was this a deliberate act of extra cruelty? Hamas claimed the bodies had been found in rubble, killed by Israeli crossfire, thus the mixup with Siri’s body.

Forensic evidence now strongly suggests that this mother and her babies were deliberately murdered by Hamas, in much the same way as the Czechoslovakian family were murdered by the Nazis in 1939. (see BBC article below).

In this tragic war started by Hamas’ invasion of Israel in October 2023, there have been shocking war crimes on both sides. But is the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians caught in a war zone equal to the deliberate murder of innocents?

What do you think?

The article below gives evidence that the killings of the Bibas family was not perpetrated by the Israeli Army, but was an act of sadism and brutality by Hamas. Were the tens of thousands of children killed or maimed in Gaza deliberately targeted with intent to mutilate, butcher and humiliate? Or were they the tragic victims of a war, started by Hamas’ invasion of Israel on 7 October 2023, but without a clear intent to murder?

“Israel’s forensic officials have confirmed a body handed over by Hamas on Friday is that of hostage Shiri Bibas – but have rejected Hamas’s claim that she was killed by Israeli bombing. 

Dr Chen Kugel, director of Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, said an examination found “no evidence of injuries caused by bombing”. 

On Friday, Israel said that the two children of Shiri Bibas – Ariel and Kfir – had been killed with “bare hands” and that evidence of this had been sent to Israel’s partners around the world.“

• by Jaroslav Lukiv
• BBC News
• 21 February 2025Updated 22 February 2025