October 7 · Personal story
Shiri Bibas
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Kibbutz Nir Oz
Current outcome
Returned for burial · February 22, 2025
Her remains were positively identified and returned to Israel for burial on 22 February 2025.
01
Life before
Shiri was born in 1991 and grew up in Nir Oz, where she remained rooted throughout her life. She was born in Kibbutz Kramim to Margit and Yossi Silberman and moved with her family to Nir Oz as a baby; her sister was Dana. She had long hoped to become a mother. She studied education and worked with children in the kibbutz system and in informal education across the Eshkol Regional Council. Later she studied bookkeeping and worked in the kibbutz administration office. The community remembered her as creative and quietly attentive: she joined cultural events and made elaborate costumes for her children. She and Yarden met through mutual friends and married by the pool at Kibbutz Tze’elim in 2018. They raised Ariel and Kfir in the community they both knew from childhood. Their family life included walks, Saturday picnics and time by the kibbutz pool.
02
Abduction
On 7 October 2023, Shiri and her family entered the safe room as the attack reached Nir Oz. One group abducted Yarden from the kibbutz grounds. At 9:43 a.m., another group entered the family home and took Shiri with Ariel and Kfir. The Nir Oz community account describes the children wrapped in a blanket in footage of their abduction. Her parents, Margit and Yossi Silberman, were killed in the attack. Yarden was separated from them and returned alive in February 2025; Shiri and the children remained together in captivity.
03
Captivity
Shiri and her sons were held together in captivity. The National Insurance Institute records 28 November 2023 as her date of death. The Nir Oz community memorial says Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were murdered in captivity and records that Yarden was held separately.
04
Return
On 20 February 2025, coffins presented as those of Shiri and her sons were transferred to Israel; forensic identification established that the woman’s remains were not Shiri’s. The Times of Israel reported that Shiri’s remains were positively identified after returning overnight on 21–22 February. Her remains were released to her family for burial.
05
Aftermath
Shiri was buried with Ariel and Kfir on 26 February 2025 at the cemetery in Tzohar, near her parents. Nir Oz families and community members remembered a woman whose work touched children and cultural life in the kibbutz. Friends described her as gentle, funny and calming, and said she loved both serious and playful conversations. She made elaborate costumes for Ariel and Kfir and took part in kibbutz events. Her family’s stories keep her life in Nir Oz present alongside the loss.