Today was supposed to be Ariel Bibas’s 7th birthday...
Yarden Bibas wrote this on Instagram today:
"Instead of celebrating your birthday, instead of going with Mom to buy things for your birthday party, I'm sitting here beside you...
The only place where I feel closest to you.
Time isn't doing what people say it does, and the days aren't getting any easier. I miss you more with every passing day, and the loneliness and emptiness only grow stronger.
The days go by. The sun still rises every morning and sets every night, but life continues to feel empty and without much meaning.
Everything that should bring joy feels hollow.
In everything I do, I can't help thinking about you and how much more meaningful, how much more joyful, it would have been if you were here with me.
I hope you know that I would give up everything for just one more moment with you.
I would give up my own life if it could bring you back.
Chucky, I can't lift you up in the birthday chair the way we always did. I don't get to watch you excitedly open all the presents you would have received, or see the joy on your face as you shared them with Kfir, whom you loved so much.
But I hope that up in Heaven, they're lifting you up and celebrating your birthday.
I'm sure Mom put together the most beautiful birthday celebration she possibly could—just like we did for you at the kibbutz every single year.
To me, you will forever be my whole world. Every small moment of happiness I still have is because of you and for you.
I love you more than anything in this world, forever and always.
I love you both more than anything in this world, forever and always. 🧡🧡🧡"
Lance Corporal Hugh Mar Jackson had one of the toughest jobs a Marine could have in Vietnam.
He was an Assaultman with M Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. Assaultmen were trained to carry and employ some of the Corps' heaviest infantry weapons, often moving alongside the riflemen during attacks against enemy positions. It was dangerous work that demanded both courage and determination.
Hugh came from St. Louis, Missouri, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. By the summer of 1967, he was serving with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines in Quang Nam Province, one of the most contested areas of the war.
On August 4, 1967, Hugh was killed by enemy small-arms fire.
Today, we remember Lance Corporal Hugh Mar Jackson of St. Louis, Missouri, who gave his life while serving with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines in Vietnam.
Ariel Bibas was supposed to turn 7 today.
Instead, Palestinian terrorists murdered him after kidnapping him with his mother and baby brother into a dark tunnel in Gaza.
Ariel will forever be 4. 💔
On October 7, dozens of terrorists disguised as IDF soldiers infiltrated the Sufa outpost and attacked the Nahal soldiers who had barricaded themselves in the dining room.
Lt. Col. Or Ben Yehuda, commander of the Caracal Battalion, was rushed to the area and led her 12 soldiers in a stubborn battle that lasted 14 hours, at the end of which they cleared the outpost while, together with the forces of Shayetet 13, eliminating all the terrorists around and inside the outpost - until the trapped soldiers were freed alive.
Or fought fiercely, even when she learned of the fall of her deputy, Major Avi Khovlashvili at Kibbutz Be'ere.
She is considered a pioneer and her activism has earned her the rank of Major General and the Chief of Staff's Distinguished Service Medal.
A true Israeli heroine.