Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Kassy Akiva.
Israel identified the bodies of four murdered Israeli hostages on Wednesday, bringing the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to an end.
The hostages were Tsahi Idan, 49, Ohad Yahalomi, 49, Itzik Elgarat, 68, and Shlomo Mantzur, 85.
Hamas turned the hostages over to the Red Cross, which returned the bodies to Israel. Following a forensic and identification process by the Israeli Defense Forces, the Health Ministry National Center of Forensic Medicine, and the Israel Police, it was concluded that Idan, Yahalomi, and Elgarat were murdered while captive, while Mantzur was murdered on October 7.
All 33 hostages slated to be returned during the first phase of the ceasefire are now in Israel. The fate of the 59 remaining hostages will be determined in later phases.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced on Thursday that he instructed his negotiating team to leave for Cairo on Thursday to continue the negotiations.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for all 59 remaining hostages, including the last living American hostage, Edan Alexander, to be released immediately.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel agreed to free 602 Palestinian prisoners. The prisoners' release had been delayed after Hamas paraded the bodies of three Israeli hostages on a stage and tried to pass off an unidentified Gazan woman's body as the corpse of hostage Shiri Bibas.
At the time, Netanyahu's office called Hamas's actions a violation of the agreement.
Tsahi Idan
On October 7, Idan's family took shelter in the safe room in their home at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Idan tried to hold the door shut as terrorists stormed their home.
Maayan, 18, was shot and killed in front of her parents, Tsachi and Gali, and her younger siblings, 11-year-old Yael and nine-year-old Shahar. The family was then forced outside at gunpoint as the parents tried to shield their children. The terrorists accessed Gali's Facebook account and live-streamed the family as they mourned Maayan before taking Idan hostage.
Yael asked the terrorists not to take their father and kill him, according to Gali in an interview on Channel 13.
"They turned around and said, 'He'll be back, he'll be back,'" said Gali.
"They promised Yael that he would return."
Ohad Yahalomi
Yahalomi, who is a French-Israeli dual citizen, was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from Kibbutz Nir Oz after he was shot in the leg during a firefight with the terrorists who invaded his home. Yahalomi decided to fight the terrorists after the handle of the safe room's door - where his wife and children were hiding - was not working properly. He sat outside the room, guarding his family with a handgun.
The terrorists took his wife, Batsheva, 12-year-old son Eitan, 10-year-old daughter Yael, and their two-year-old daughter away towards Gaza on mopeds. When the terrorists encountered two Israeli tanks, they reportedly split up and Batsheva, Yael, and the two-year-old were able to flee to freedom in pajamas and flip-flops.
Eitan was freed in the November 2023 hostage deal. Batsheva says he was beaten by Gazan civilians and held in a cell alone for 16 days. Terrorists reportedly forced him to watch films of October 7 and threatened him with a gun when he cried.
Itzik Elgarat
Elgarat, a Danish-Israeli dual citizen, was shot by terrorists through the door of his safe room before being taken captive from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Elgarat was on the phone with his brother Danny during the ordeal, shouting
"Danny, this is the end, this is the end" before the call went dead. An hour later, at 12:10, Danny saw that his brother's phone was in Gaza.
Hostages released in the 2023 ceasefire said that Elgarat had been treated at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
When it was announced that Elgarat would be released in the first phase, Danny said he believed his brother was dead and urged living hostages to be prioritized.
"Leave the bodies there; bring back living people. My brother is there as a fallen soldier, and I am saying on my behalf that I am willing to leave him there for now if it means bringing back someone alive," Danny said.
Shlomo Mantzur
Mantzur was the oldest hostage still in Gaza. He was killed on October 7 and had his body taken captive by terrorists from Kibbutz Kissufim and driven to Gaza in his own car, according to the IDF. Before being taken, Mantzur was tied up with his wife, Mazal, who was able to escape to a neighbor's home.
Mantzur, who was born in Iraq, survived the persecution of Jews in the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad in 1941, where more than 180 Jews were killed, 1,000 were injured, and 900 Jewish homes were destroyed.
Mantzur helped found Kibbutz Kissufim, where he managed the chicken coop and worked in an eyewear factory. Members of the community described him as the
"beating heart" of Kissufim. Mazal and Mantzur's 60th wedding anniversary was on March 1, 2024.
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