The painful speech of the Bibas' father asking his family for forgiveness for not having saved them

"Shiri, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you," lamented freed Israeli hostage Yarden Bibas at the funeral of his Argentine-born wife, Shiri Bibas, and their two children, who died in captivity in Gaza, becoming a symbol of the hostage tragedy.

Broken with grief, Yarden Bibas recalled the characteristics of his two little red-haired children, Kfir and Ariel , who were respectively eight months and four years old, and who together with Shiri, gave him a "perfect family."

"Shiri, I'm sorry I couldn't protect you all," Yarden Bibas said in his eulogy at the funeral held in a cemetery near Kibbutz Nir Oz, where the four were kidnapped by Palestinian Hamas militants during the attack on October 7, 2023.

The funeral procession left Rishon LeZion, a city south of Tel Aviv, on Wednesday for Nir Oz, the Bibas family's kibbutz in southern Israel, 100 km away, where thousands of mourners gathered to accompany the relatives.

The Bibas family on Wednesday called on all Israeli officials to take responsibility for the deaths of their loved ones abducted in Gaza.

"There is no point in forgiving before the failures are investigated and all officials are held accountable... They could have been saved, but they preferred revenge ," Ofri Bibas said at the funeral of his sister-in-law and nephews.

Yarden Bibas was released on February 1 in a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, but he did not learn until then that his family had died.

The remains of his wife and children were returned to Israel last week by the Palestinian Islamist movement, as part of the truce agreement in the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has insisted it was an Israeli airstrike that killed the Bibas early in the war, but an Israeli autopsy said there was no evidence of injuries caused by shelling.

"Shiri, I love you and I will always love you. Shiri, you are everything to me. You are the best wife and mother there could be. Shiri, you are my best friend," Yarden said, her voice breaking with emotion as she read her speech, which was televised live in Israel.

"Do you remember our last decision together? In the safe room, I asked you if we should 'fight or surrender.'"

" You said 'fight', so I fought. Shiri... If I had known what was going to happen, I would not have shot," Yarden Bibas said, describing the events of that day when they were attacked by the militants in Nir Oz.

The funeral was attended only by family and friends, and was not open to the media.

But a dense crowd gathered on the sidewalks of Rishon LeZion with orange balloons, the symbol of the red-haired children, waving Israeli flags and photos of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir.

As the procession of black vehicles entered the city, the crowd quietly sang the Israeli national anthem, an AFP journalist observed.

"It's one of the hardest moments since October 7," said a commentator on Israeli television 12 , which broadcast the procession live, on the verge of tears.

"When I think of October 7," Aviv Nahman, a resident of Rishon LeZion, told AFP, "I think first of all of that family."

"If I think about it for more than a fraction of a second, I feel very bad, very bad," Simi Polonasky, 38, who travelled from Miami to support the hostages' families, told AFP.

"This is not a normal situation (...) you feel so broken that it is almost difficult to continue ," said the woman in Rishon LeZion, breaking into tears.

Dozens of people lit candles along the road. "We are here to embrace people, to strengthen each other and to give all the strength we can," said Mottel Gestetner, 41, who came from Australia.

"Today I look out the window (of the car) at a broken country. We will not be able to recover or heal until the last hostage is home. Thank you all," said Yarden's sister, Ofri Bibas, on her Facebook account.

Of the 251 people captured in Israel during the surprise attack on October 7, 2023, 62 are still held hostage in Gaza , of whom 35 were killed, according to the Israeli military.

The bodies of four more Israeli hostages, also kidnapped during the October 7 attack, are expected to be handed over on Wednesday, Hamas's armed wing said.

In a statement, the Palestinian group said the bodies of Itzik Elgarat, 70; Ohad Yahalomi, 50; Shlomo Mansur, 85; and Tsahi Idan, 50, would arrive in Israeli territory tonight.