The Shiri Bibas Controversy: Why Official Documents Omit the Word "Murder"
Families of hostages murdered in Gaza have expressed outrage after discovering that official state documents often use the term "deceased" rather than acknowledging they were murdered.
A wave of anger and frustration has erupted among the families of Israelis who were murdered while being held by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. During recent meetings with the Hostages and Missing Persons Headquarters, family members were presented with official summaries of the intelligence gathered before the formal closing of their loved ones' files. To their horror, many discovered that the state has been using neutral or vague terminology to describe the circumstances of their deaths.
The discrepancies in the official paperwork are stark. In several cases, the summary pages for hostages known to have been killed by their captors simply list them as "deceased" without any mention of the fact that they were murdered in captivity. For the families, this is not a mere bureaucratic oversight but a fundamental failure to document the historical truth of the October 7 atrocities and their aftermath. They argue that the state must explicitly recognize the nature of these deaths for the sake of future generations.
The controversy is particularly acute regarding the death certificates being issued by the Ministry of Interior. In the case of Shiri Bibas, the official document lists the place of death as Gaza and the cause of death as a "terrorist attack." Family members argue that this phrasing fails to reflect the reality that she was murdered during her time in captivity. In another instance, the death certificate for Shlomo Mansour left the "cause of death" section entirely blank, despite evidence that he did not die of natural causes.
"Our loved ones were murdered in captivity, and the State of Israel must acknowledge this," representatives for the families stated. They believe that by using sterilized language, the government is inadvertently participating in the erasure of the full extent of Hamas's crimes. This struggle over terminology is part of a larger battle over the national memory of the war, especially as the government continues to avoid establishing a state commission of inquiry into the failures surrounding the initial massacre.
The families expressed to N12 that the accuracy of these records is a matter of basic dignity and respect for the dead. They fear that if the official narrative is not corrected now, the true horror of what happened in the tunnels of Gaza will be lost to history. The lack of a uniform and truthful standard for documenting these deaths has left many feeling abandoned by the same state institutions that failed to protect their relatives on October 7.
In response to the growing pressure, some officials within the defense establishment have acknowledged the need for more precise language. However, the political echelon has yet to issue a clear directive to update the certificates and internal documents. As the war continues and more hostage files are closed, the families vow to continue their fight until the word "murdered" is inscribed in the permanent records of the State of Israel.