IDF Operation Recovers Five Hostage Bodies and Returns Them to Israel

Interrogations of captured terrorists and field intelligence gathered in collaboration with the Shin Bet security agency enabled the soldiers to find the site where the bodies were held.

By World Israel News

Five Israelis murdered on October 7th, whose bodies were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and held in the Gaza Strip for more than nine months, were retrieved by IDF forces and repatriated to Israel for burial on Wednesday.

All of the hostages had been confirmed as dead by the IDF in recent months.

The bodies of Mia Goren, 65, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, Ravid Katz, 51, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, Oren Goldin, 33, from Kibbutz Nir Itzhak, Staff Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Ahimas, 20, from Lehavim, and Sgt. Kiril Brodski, 19, from Ramat Gan, were rescued from Khan Younes in the central Strip, the IDF said in a statement.

Interrogations of captured terrorists and field intelligence gathered in collaboration with the Shin Bet security agency enabled the soldiers to find the site where the bodies were held.

The rescue of the bodies brings the total number of hostages, both living and dead, still held in the coastal enclave to 111. At least 39 of those captives have been declared dead.

Goren, an early childhood educator, was murdered by Hamas terrorists in her kibbutz’s daycare center.

“She got up early and went to the [daycare center] to organize it for the next day, for Sunday, and she got caught in there,” said Amir, Goren’s nephew. “They nabbed her.”

Katz, a member of his kibbutz’s emergency response team, was slain as he tried to fight terrorists who were rampaging through the community.

Goldin was also a member of his kibbutz’s security squad and was similarly killed in a gunbattle against terrorists.

“I haven’t managed to cry. I don’t feel anything, my brain doesn’t allow my heart to feel,” wrote Goldin’s brother, Rani, after receiving news of his death.

“I refuse to believe that this really happened — that we are here and you are no longer.”

Brodski and Ahimas were killed by Hamas terrorists while attempting to stave off the invasion of Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel.

“On October 7, he went to Nirim and saved people there, and when he fell, he saved others,” said Brodski’s mother, Elena, at a memorial service held before his body was returned to Israel.

“I am proud of him for what he did, but on the other hand, it’s so hard for me not to see him or hear his laughter anymore.”