The Israeli navy mentioned on Friday that it had retrieved the our bodies of two 19-year-old troopers and a 28-year-old occasion planner who had been kidnapped throughout the Hamas-led assaults on Oct. 7 and held captive in Gaza.
The hostages had been recognized as Cpl. Nik Beiser, 19; Sgt. Ron Sherman, 19; and Elia Toledano, 28, who was a twin citizen of Israel and France. Medical officers, navy rabbis and forensic specialists carried out the identification process, based on the navy. The navy didn’t give particulars about how the three males died or the place their stays had been discovered.
“Our coronary heart was murdered in Gaza,” Mr. Beiser’s mom, Katy Beiser, wrote in Hebrew on Fb. “We gained’t overlook your smile.”
The 2 troopers had been taken hostage whereas serving in a base run by COGAT, Israel’s navy physique that oversees coverage for the Palestinian territories. Mr. Toledano was kidnapped whereas attending the Tribe of Nova music competition within the Negev Desert, the place Palestinian gunmen killed a whole lot of individuals, the Occasions of Israel reported.
“We share within the household’s grief,” the navy mentioned in an announcement, including that its mission was “to find the lacking and return all of the abductees residence.”
In accordance a The Occasions of Israel interview with Mr. Beiser’s mom, he was not alleged to be engaged on the weekend he was kidnapped, as he had switched shifts with a pal.
She final heard from him the morning of Oct. 7, when he tried to calm her down after she referred to as him. He instructed her to not fear earlier than his cellphone disconnected. Later that afternoon, she noticed her son in a video posted on-line by Hamas.
Mr. Sherman’s father, Alex Sherman, mentioned that his son was a really social individual — “a magnet to everybody round him” — who loved taking part in soccer along with his pals within the navy. He additionally was asthmatic, he mentioned, and used an inhaler. His final phone dialog with him was the morning of Oct. 7.
“He sounded very frightened and was describing what he might hear, minute after minute, then he mentioned there have been terrorists within the base,” he mentioned in a video message posted by the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, a bunch of households of hostages held in Gaza.
Earlier than Mr. Sherman misplaced contact along with his household at 7:12 a.m., he wrote in a textual content: “That’s it, they’re by the door. That is the top, I’m a goner, I like you,” together with purple hearts.
His father mentioned {that a} video of Mr. Sherman with two different troopers was posted by Hamas 4 or 5 hours after their cellphone name. The household have any information about Sergeant Sherman after that, his father mentioned in a video posted by the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board in mid-November.
President Emmanuel Macron of France confirmed the loss of life of Mr. Toledano, who had French citizenship, on social media. No different particulars about Mr. Toledano’s loss of life had been instantly out there.
“Our compatriot Elia Toledano was taken on Oct. 7 by Hamas,” Mr. Macron wrote. “Deep disappointment this morning of his loss of life in Gaza. I share within the shock and sorrow of his household.”
Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.
