Israel buries two slain hostages recovered from Gaza
KFAR MAAS, ISRAEL: Two hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza last week were buried in Israel on Monday (Sep 1) in separate ceremonies attended by family and friends.
The remains of Idan Shtivi, 28, and Ilan Weiss, 56, were returned on Friday, nearly 23 months after they were both killed in the Hamas-led assault of Oct 7, 2023.
Shtivi, a student and volunteer photographer at the Nova music festival when militants stormed the site, was laid to rest in Kfar Maas in central Israel. His mother, Dalit, wept in her eulogy, asking her son to “forgive me for not being able to protect and keep you safe.” His coffin was draped with an Israeli flag.
For months after the attack, Shtivi’s family had hoped he was alive, before authorities informed them near the first anniversary of the assault that he had been killed. He had tried to flee the scene with two wounded people but lost control of his car, which was later found riddled with bullets.
Weiss, a member of his kibbutz’s emergency response team, was buried in Beeri, near the Gaza border. His wife Shiri and daughter Noga were kidnapped during the attack but released in a truce the following month.
IDF RESCUE
The Israeli military said the bodies of Shtivi and Weiss were recovered in a “complex rescue operation.”
Of the 251 people taken hostage in Oct 2023, 47 remain in Gaza, including 25 Israel says are dead.
The Hamas-led assault killed 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has since killed at least 63,557 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry figures deemed reliable by the United Nations.
