For a year and a half, five-year-old Yoav waited for his best friend, Ariel Bibas, to come home. He wrote him letters, set aside a Batman costume for Purim, and kept asking the question no child should have to ask: “When is Ariel coming back from Gaza?”
When his parents finally broke the devastating news that Ariel would never return, Yoav, with the innocence of a child, simply said, “My heart hurts.”
He also wrote one last letter to his friend:
To Ariel, from Yoav
“I want to draw Batman and all the flying heroes for you so you’ll feel like flying over Gaza and fighting the bad guys with a bow and arrow. Then you’ll come back to us and be with us in kindergarten.
I hope you get yourself some candy and a cape. I miss you.”
Completely heartbreaking.
