The U.S. ambassador joined bereaved families at a northern Israeli olive grove where supporters around the world plant roots in Israel by adopting trees.
MOSHAV HAYOGEV, Israel — In a pristine olive grove in northern Israel, where supporters from around the world have adopted indigenous olive trees, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet Huckabee, paid tribute on Thursday to the Israeli family that became the face of the hostages held in Gaza.
The Huckabees unveiled a memorial plaque on an olive tree dedicated by a non-Jewish Floridian in memory of the Bibas family—Shiri and her sons, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir—who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre and murdered in captivity in Gaza.
“It is very sobering to meet a family who has gone through so much suffering,” Huckabee said after meeting the children’s father, Yarden Bibas. “It is always a reminder to me that so many people in the world don’t understand what the people of Israel went through on Oct. 7 and what they continue to go through.”
He noted that the approximately 1,200 Israelis murdered and more than 250 taken hostage in the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust would be the per capita equivalent of some 40,000 Americans killed and 10,000 taken hostage.