NEW YORK (VINnews/JNS) — Israeli security forces retrieved the remains of slain hostage Itai Svirsky from the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said in a joint statement on Wednesday night.
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“In a Shin Bet operation assisted by the IDF, the body of the hostage Itai Svirsky was brought for burial in Israel from Gaza,” the statement said. Svirsky’s family was said to have been informed on Wednesday after forensics determined that the body was indeed that of the captive.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 News broadcaster, the operation to retrieve Svirsky’s body was carried out in recent days in central Gaza.
Svirsky, 38, a Tel Aviv resident with dual German-Israeli citizenship, was visiting his elderly parents at Kibbutz Be’eri for Shabbat and the Simchat Torah holiday on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists launched the cross-border assault. Both of his parents were murdered by Hamas.
An estimated 10% of the 1,100 residents who lived in Be’eri were killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, with an equal number of its residents kidnapped during the murder spree and infiltration of Israel’s southern border.
On Jan. 16, the kibbutz announced that Svirsky and fellow hostage Yossi Sharabi were killed in captivity. The confirmation came shortly after Hamas released a propaganda video purporting to show their bodies.
Svirsky’s sister, Merav, previously told Channel 12 that IDF representatives informed her that her brother was likely executed by his Hamas guards during military operations in the area where he was held captive. On her return from captivity, Noa Argamani, who was with Itai in his last days, also confirmed that Itai was murdered by his Hamas guards.
Argamani eulogized Svirsky on Instagram:
“Dear Itai, during our joint time in captivity we imagined thousands of situations where we would return together to Israel, meet for coffee after everything was done and laugh about it. We never imagined that you would return to Israel as a corpse.
Thank you for every moment of our time together. You were a friend and an older brother to me in this dark place. You taught me so much that I will take with me whereever I go. Now you merited proper burial in Israel. May your soul be bound in eternal life.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that followed the announcement on Wednesday, “The heart breaks at the heavy loss of the Svirsky family, which also lost Itai’s parents, Orit and Rafi of blessed memory, who were murdered in Hamas’s deadly attack.”
“We will continue to take determined and relentless action to return all of our hostages, the living and the deceased,” the Israeli leader vowed.
The Tikvah Forum of hostage families thanked “the security forces who worked and fought to retrieve the body of Itai Svirsky, may God avenge his blood, and all those working for the release of our loved ones.”
“The Tikvah families embrace the Svirsky family as Itai’s body is rescued from Gaza and brought to kever Yisrael [‘Jewish burial’],” the NGO said.
According to official figures, 96 of the 251 hostages who were taken during the Oct. 7 assault remain in Gaza after 425 days. Hamas is also holding two civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014.
My heart goes out to the Svirsky family and all affected by these monsters.
May Ha Shem avenge their blood.
The only way we6have peace in gaza strip is to take over the entire area, Jews only New border if Israel.
Really just reestablishing our border from the Torah
Don’t be afraid.
Put the monsters in their place