A nation in mourning: the body of hostage Oded Lifshitz formally identified

The family of hostage Oded Lifshitz says his body has been identified.

The peace activist and founding member of Kibbutz Nir Oz was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th. His wife Yocheved was abducted separately and released 16 days later.

In a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the family said: “We received with sorrow the official and bitter news about the identification of the body of our beloved Oded. 503 agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end. We hoped and prayed so much for the ending to be different. Now we can mourn the husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who we have been missing since October 7. Our family’s rehabilitation will start now and won’t end until the last hostage is returned.”

The bodies of the three other hostages, who according to Hamas are Shiri Bibas and her young children Kfir and Ariel, have yet to be formally identified after being received by Israel.

Red Cross vehicles collected the coffins of the fallen after a sickening “ceremony” held by Hamas in Bani Suheila, a suburb of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli sources say that the IDF is checking the caskets for booby-traps, as they are locked without a key that can open them.

The bodies were then transferred to new coffins draped in Israeli flags for a short military ceremony, before being transported to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabi for official identification.

Israel’s health minister Uriel Busso has said the process is also to establish the cause of death and is therefore expected to take some time. Only then will the families be informed.

Israel confirmed the names of the fallen yesterday, but in a further statement they apologised for it, following the anger of the Bibas family at not having been notified of the intent to do so.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that they “considered” the possibility of him coming to the ceremony to receive the fallen hostages, but ultimately decided not to.

Reflecting the deeply sombre mood of the day, Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote: “On behalf of the State of Israel, I bow my head and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for not protecting you on that terrible day. Forgiveness for not bringing you home safely. May their memory be a blessing.”

Around the country, flags are lowered to half-mast in honor of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz, who were all kidnapped from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th.