Body of Israeli hostage Ron Benjamin recovered from Gaza

The Israeli Defense Forces on Saturday night announced that the body of Israeli hostage Ron Benjamin, 53, was located in Gaza alongside the corpses of three other captives found a day earlier.

“Tonight, we are sharing the tragic news that the Israel Defense Forces together with the ISA [Israel Security Agency] rescued the body of the Israeli hostage Ron Benjamin and brought him home to Israel,” IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a video statement.

Hagari said that Benjamin, a resident of Rehovot in central Israel, was on a bike ride with friends on the morning of Oct. 7 near Kibbutz Be’eri when he decided to drive home after the sirens started sounding for incoming rockets from Gaza. Hamas terrorists murdered him at the Mefalsim intersection—his car was found a few days later riddled with bullets—and his body was taken to Gaza.

His body was recovered in the same overnight operation in Rafah in southern Gaza on May 16 during which Israeli forces located the bodies of 22-year-old Shani Louk, 28-year-old Amit Bouskila and 56-year-old Itzhak Gelerenter.

Hamas still holds 128 hostages in Gaza captured during its Oct. 7 invasion of southern Israel.

“We are saddened to receive the difficult news of the murder of Ron Benjamin by Hamas terrorists. His return to Israel this Saturday is a sacred mission, allowing his family to give him eternal rest in the land of Israel,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement.

“128 captives have been waiting to be rescued and to be returned to Israel for 225 long days and nights. It is the responsibility of the Israeli government to focus on the only important task: to fight for their return home,” the statement continued.

Benjamin is survived by his wife, Ayelet, and their children Shai, 25, and Gil, 21.