Thousands of Israelis flooded the streets on Thursday as they escorted the remains of four slain hostages on their final journey home.

After 503 days in captivity, the bodies of Oded Lifshitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two sons, Ariel and Kfir — the youngest hostages abducted by Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023 — were returned to Israel.

The procession moved steadily through the country, beginning at Kissufim, a kibbutz that came under attack from Hamas. Around noon, the convoy reached Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, where forensic examiners later confirmed the identity of the remains of Lifshitz. The grim announcement marked the end of a long and painful wait for the family of the 84-year-old, a former journalist and peace activist who served as a volunteer driving sick Palestinians from Gaza to receive treatment in Israeli hospitals.  

“I came to give my respects and to show that we’re here, not giving up on anyone, and we don’t want any more hostages arriving like this, in coffins at Abu Kabir,” Limor Flang, one of the mourners, told The Algemeiner.  

The road to this moment had been lined with horror. Hours earlier, in a grisly spectacle, Hamas had staged what it called a victory celebration in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza. The Palestinian terrorist group placed the coffins of the four hostages on a makeshift stage in an abandoned cemetery, turning their deaths into a theatrical condemnation of Israel and its leadership.

Lining the back of the stage was a massive poster of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shown as a vampire dripping with blood, with the four slain hostages in front of him alongside the sentence: “The war criminal Netanyahu and his Nazi army killed them with missiles from Israeli warplanes.” Around the stage, mock missiles bore messages shifting the blame onto Israel and the United States. One read: “They were killed by USA bombs.”

Thousands of onlookers had gathered, including many children and babies, cheering as masked Hamas terrorists brandished weapons. Music blared from loudspeakers, punctuated by chants of victory.

Flang said she refused to watch footage of the grotesque display Hamas had orchestrated earlier that day. “I respected the families’ wishes not to watch any videos or look at any images out of there.”

As the ceremony unfolded, Hamas officials met with representatives from the International Red Cross to sign off on the transfer of the remains. Photographs of the hostages were arranged alongside the date “11-2023,” an apparent attempt to suggest that they had been killed in Israeli airstrikes last November. The circumstances surrounding their deaths remain unclear.

For Israeli forces who had fought to bring the hostages home, the day carried an added weight. Amir Ettinger, an Israeli journalist who had served as a reservist in Gaza, recalled the desperate efforts to retrieve the remains after receiving intelligence indicating where the bodies were. 

“It was one of those sweltering summer days in July,” he wrote on X. “We were on our last operation before leaving the Netzarim Corridor. For days, we operated on the outskirts of Gaza City. There was intelligence about the bodies of hostages. We dug in the yard with shovels and removed debris with our hands, while around us were enemies and tank fire. We went through the debris for nearly a day but found nothing.”

Eli from Arad, another mourner outside Abu Kabir, expressed his frustration at what he saw as Israel’s repeated concessions to Hamas. “It’s horrible to see them come back like this, but it’s worse because we could have saved them if we had been more forceful. We’ve been making mistakes since the 1990s — since asonlo,” he said, using a portmanteau of the Hebrew word for “disaster” and the Oslo peace process.

Yossi Levy, who had made the journey from the northern town of Nahariyya, expressed his hope that no more hostages would die. “This is the saddest day. The fate of Israel has been sealed with the sight of these four coffins,” said “Let’s hope this is the last day like this.”

Efrat, whose uncle and aunt, Gadi and Margalit Mozes, had been kidnapped and later released by Hamas, said she wanted the world to understand the broader implications of terrorism. The Mozeses were close friends of Lifshitz, and lived close to each other on Kibbutz Nir Oz. 

“This national sadness doesn’t belong only to Israel. The entire Western world, which shares our values and morals, should be frightened by what terrorism can bring,” she said. “People who cry for peace and pacifism, who advocate for respect and the rights of native peoples, should do so only after they really understand who it is they are protecting.”

The mourning reached beyond Israel’s borders. Argentine President Javier Milei declared a day of national mourning in honor of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were dual Argentine-Israeli nationals. In central London, hundreds turned out holding Israeli flags and dressed in black for a mock funeral.

The post ‘The Saddest Day Yet:’ Israel Mourns as Slain Hostages Return Following Grotesque Hamas Ceremony first appeared on Algemeiner.com.