May Their Memories Be A Blessing

"Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine the fourth body handed over to Israel y Hamas does not match any of the hostages."

"Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages."

Israel Defense Forces 

 

"The government and the entire establishment for the return of captives and missing of the State of Israel are determined, committed and working tirelessly to return all of our deceased hostages for proper burial in their country."

"The Hamas terrorist organization is required to uphold its commitments to the mediators and return the fallen as part of the agreement's implementation."

"We will not compromise on this and we will spare no effort until we return all of the hostages, until the last one."

May their memories be a blessing."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

 

"All 20 hostages are back and feeling as good as can be expected."

"A big burden has been lifted, but the job is not done."

"The dead have not been returned, as promised! Phase two begins right now!"

U.S. President Donald Trump 

Residents of Rehovot await the return home of released hostage Nimrod Cohen, holding a banner that reads: ‘Nimrod, it’s so good that you’ve come home’ (Vardit Alon-Korpel/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

 

As far as Israel is concerned, a major objective in its conflict with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas was finally securing the release of Israeli  hostages, kidnapped on October 7, 2023 from kibbutzim, farming communities and the Nova Music Festival in southern Israel, when terror operatives stormed across the border from Gaza on a well-planned mission of slaughter. In the process the terrorists from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Fatah, four thousand in number, joined by two thousand Palestinian civilians launched an orgy of looting, raping, and murder.

 

The sheer level of unadulterated horror perpetrated on Israeli civilians, mostly Jews, but including Arabs and foreign farm workers and agronomy students from abroad, demonstrated the depths of satanic depravity in sadistic savagery that saw girls and women being tortured and mutilated before and after mass rape and finally murdered, much of it revealed through forensic examination, but also captured on video by body cams worn by the marauders, later released on social media sites as proud performances of 'resistance' against Israeli 'occupation'. That occupation the very ancestral land that Israel sits on, claimed by Palestinians as their own.

 

Finally, after two years of incarceration in dank, dark, airless tunnels, where physical and mental torture was their lot along with starvation rations and inadequate potable water, the last remaining twenty live hostages were released from their captivity under an agreement led by the U.S., supported by Arab nations with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey applying pressure on Hamas to comply -- the very countries that have traditionally supported, funded and armed Hamas, along with Iran. 

 

The bodies of Israeli hostages who were taken, dead into Gaza, and others who died or were murdered while hostage in Gaza, some 28 in number, according to the agreement were to have been returned in the first phase of the agreement. That did not quite happen as expected. An initial three dead hostages were repatriated, then another three -- and with them a body dressed in an Israeli military uniform, but found to be a Palestinian. 

 

Shiri Bibas was kidnapped with her two children during the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 PA Media

 

This is not the only time that sadistic cruelty meant to cause Israeli grief was staged by Hamas; a body claimed to be that of murdered hostage Shiri Bibas, mother of two infants, Ariel and Kfir, ages 4 and 2, all strangled to death by soulless bare hands, was turned over to Israel by Hamas. That body was that of a Palestinian woman from Gaza. It was only later that the remains of all three were eventually returned to Israel. The purpose of that demonic deception was to cause additional anguish, and it did.

 

"All the families of the hostages have been updated, and our hearts are with them in this difficult hour. The efforts to return our hostages is ongoing and will not cease until the last hostage is returned", read a message from the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, Tuesday night. Late Tuesday Israeli authorities confirmed that bodies received the previous day were those of Guy Illuz, Yossi Sharabi, IDF Capt. Daniel Peretz and Nepalese agricultural student Bipin Joshi. 

 

Paying tribute to the seven dead captives returned to Israel since Monday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke of the Hamas "obligation to fulfill its commitment and return all the hostages". "We as a nation bear a moral obligation to bring back all of our fallen who remain in Gaza. Every one of them, until the last", stated Mr. Herzog. All 48 hostages, both living and dead were mandated to be returned by the U.S.-mediated agreement, within 72 hours of the ceasefire that began on Friday, with the IDF withdrawal from parts of Gaza. 

 

Israel announced it was prepared to sanction Hamas over delays in the return of deceased hostages; reacting by postponing opening of the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, thus reducing aid supplies into the Strip. Israeli officials a day later cancelled the measures on the return of additional bodies. And then, after a final return on Wednesday of another four bodies, Hamas announced it was unable to locate any more of the deceased Israeli bodies for return as promised to Israel. This, even though Israeli intelligence knows where those bodies are.

 

Hostages Inbar Haiman (left) and Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash, whose bodies were returned by Hamas late October 15, 2025. (Courtesy)

 

Despite signing on to the agreement, Hamas remains unwilling to surrender the hostages to the very last one, viewing them as indispensable to their game of control, knowing how deeply engrained in Israeli culture the return of all  hostages held by Palestinian terrorists is. Their return is a sacred obligation, a precious albeit onerous task that results in the wildly uneven trade of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, among them mass murderers, in exchange for one Israeli body. 

 

Palestinians welcome prisoners released from Israeli jails under a prisoner exchange agreement, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Oct. 13. Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg/Getty Images

 

"Enough with the disgrace."

"Moments after opening the gates to hundreds of trucks, Hamas quickly reverted to its well-known tactics -- lying, deceiving, and abusing families and bodies."

"Nazi terrorism understands only force, and the only way to solve problems with it is to wipe it off the face of the earth."

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir