A mural of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, was defaced during a memorial event at Milan’s central synagogue honoring victims of the October 7 Hamas massacre.
The mural, October 7 The Hostages, was created by Italian artist aleXsandro Palombo and was unveiled on October 7, 2025, outside the Consulate General of Qatar in Milan. It depicts Bibas and her children, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed in Gaza.
The mural, which depicts Bibas holding her two sons on a black background, with a bright orange used for the children’s hair, marked the first official commemoration done with city approval after officials rejected a proposal to light up Palazzo Marino, Milan’s city hall, in orange to commemorate the murdered Israelis in February.
“The artwork serves as a testimony, documents a historical event, denounces violence, and calls for public reflection,” a spokesperson for the artist said after its unveiling earlier this month.
During the ceremony last week, a poster reading “NO WAR” was placed over Bibas’s face, changing the meaning of the piece. The act is being viewed as a deliberate attempt to undermine the mural’s original message commemorating victims of terrorism.
Not the first time Palombo's work has been vandalized
Palombo’s works have previously been targeted in similar acts of vandalism. In 2024, a mural dedicated to Nova festival survivor Vlada Patapov was defaced just hours after it was revealed. Works honoring Holocaust survivors Liliana Segre, Sami Modiano, and Edith Bruck were also damaged.
Several of Palombo’s murals are now part of the permanent collection at the Shoah Museum in Rome’s Jewish ghetto.
Palombo is known for socially engaged art focused on inclusion and human rights.