My period stopped on October 7, 2023. It won’t come back. Something inside me knew before my mind could process it—my motherhood had been shattered. The primal certainty that I could protect my children, that love could be a shield, dissolved in an instant. My body reacted before I did, as if it understood the unbearable truth: nothing would ever be safe again.
That day, I was far from home, in Slovakia, directing a play I had written—a comedy about the modern challenges of motherhood, titled I LOVE MAMA. The premiere was set for October 7. My youngest son had just arrived for the show, was with me, thank God. I heard the audience laughing. Usually, that sound would have filled me with joy. But not that night. That night, all I could think of were the parents in Israel whispering to their children, "everything will be ok", holding them close, telling them not to be afraid—as if love alone could stop the bullets.
The images scorched me. Shiri Bibas, holding her two redheaded babies. The terror in her eyes… I felt it in my bones. The helplessness. Can it be that we cannot protect our children? That no matter how fiercely we love them, we cannot promise them safety?
That night, I canceled all the "premiere" celebrations. I stood before the audience and told them what was happening in my country, to my people, to the mothers and fathers and children who would never go home again. I ended the evening with Havdalah, the prayer that marks the separation between light and darkness.
After I had spoken, one of the actresses pulled me backstage. She hardly speaks English, and she was crying, fumbling for the words. In the end she just blurted out in Slovak "Moje Babička židovské,". I understood. Her grandmother was Jewish. I had worked with her for two months; my play is very Jewish-orientated and she had never mentioned it. Tears still running down her face, she signaled that it was a secret. Her grandmother had once felt that same fear—of not being able to protect her children. And so, she decided not to raise them as Jews. But that night, the actress wanted to tell me—she felt the pain in her heart.
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Hamas terrorist infiltrating Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
When the performance ended, my son—13 at the time—asked for the key to our apartment. He wanted to go "home." I asked if he was okay going alone, if he wasn’t scared. He said he was fine. “You can stay as long as you want—it’s only across the road.” I gave him the key.
When I got back to the apartment an hour later, he was asleep. But next to his bed, was a large kitchen knife. And another next to his computer.
It has been 16 months. This week, Shiri Bibas and her two sons were returned in black boxes—sealed shut, with keys that didn’t even fit the locks. I can't say I'm surprised… maybe they hoped we wouldn’t open them.
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A vigil in London for Oded Lifshitz and the Bibas family
(Photo: BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP)
Forensic evidence confirmed the unthinkable: the two babies were choked to death by Palestinian terrorists with their bare hands. Their tiny bodies were then mutilated with rocks, staged to look like casualties of an airstrike. As if that horror weren’t enough, the body initially sent as their mother, Shiri, wasn’t even hers—it belonged to an unknown woman. That alone speaks volumes about the value of women under Hamas. A day later, Shiri’s actual body was identified and returned—but we will never know if she was forced to witness the murder of her children.
Hadar GalronPhoto: Roni TernovskyI wrote I LOVE MAMA as a comedy about the struggles of modern motherhood. But I have since dedicated the production to the parents who lost their children, and the children who lost their parents on October 7—facing challenges that are anything but modern. They belong to an era we should have left behind, yet here they are, ancient and barbaric, playing out in our time.
Motherhood is supposed to be a promise. For generations, we've whispered the same words: I'll protect you and guard you. We tell ourselves it's true because we need to believe it. But what happens when the lie is exposed? What do we tell our children now?
What is it exactly that I can promise them?
- Hadar Galron is an Anglo-Israeli playwright, screenwriter, comedian, director, actress and teacher of dramatic writing at several Academic Institutes