A stark memorial to the three members of the Bibas family who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, and later murdered by Hamas terrorists, will open to the public next month at Kibbutz Tzeelim in southern Israel.

Shiri Bibas, 32, Ariel, 4, and 9-month-old Kfir came to symbolize the horrors of the terrorist attack and its aftermath. Their bodies were returned from Gaza in February and buried in a single casket at the regional cemetery in Tzohar.

Yarden Bibas, then 34, who was kidnapped on that day separately from his family and released on February 1 this year after 484 days in captivity in Gaza, was born and grew up on Kibbutz Tzeelim, and his parents still live there.

The austere memorial — an environmental installation created by Zvika Pasternak — consists of six cement circles embracing a seventh, within which are the “footprints” of Shiri and Ariel, and the tiny footprints and handprints of Kfir.

Pasternak told The Times of Israel that the inspiration for the footprints came during a martial arts session, when his instructor asked him to let all his strength pass down through the soles of his feet and into the earth.

Footprints, he said, were something personal. “Usually, they suggest a route. Here, they are trapped, frozen in time.”

“I was stuck over the footprints for Kfir,”  he explained. “Then my daughter Mika said,........

© The Times of Israel