Israel on Thursday held a farewell ceremony at Ben-Gurion Airport for Joshua Luito Mollel, a 21-year-old agricultural intern from Tanzania who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. His body was taken into Gaza following the assault.
Mollel’s body was handed over to Israeli authorities on Nov. 5 after being held in Gaza for 761 days, and his remains were formally identified the following day.
He had arrived in Israel just 19 days before the attack to study advanced agricultural techniques through the Agrostudies internship program—a hands-on training initiative supported by Israel’s Foreign Ministry and affiliated with MASHAV, the country’s international development cooperation agency, which brings students from developing nations to Israel for practical farm work and training.
Eynat Shlein, head of MASHAV and a deputy director general at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, paid tribute to Mollel at the ceremony. In a post on X afterward, she said he had arrived in Israel “full of hopes” before being “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists,” and conveyed MASHAV’s “deepest condolences to his family.” “May he rest in peace,” she wrote.
Tanzanian Ambassador to Israel Alex Gabriel Kalua also attended the ceremony, along with Mollel’s fellow students and program officials.
The event was live-streamed to his family and community in Tanzania.
Mollel is survived by his parents and four siblings.
Israeli officials and the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, at the time of his identification, extended condolences to his family and vowed to continue efforts to recover the remains of all hostages still held by Hamas. The bodies of three slain hostages are still in Gaza: Israelis Master Sgt. Ran Gvili and Dror Or, and Thai national Sudthisak Rinthalak.
