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.
“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 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.
‘The heart breaks … ’
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.