3 recovered hostages laid to rest in Israel, 10 months after they were taken alive
Families of Yagev Buchstav, Nadav Popplewell and Avraham Munder mourn missed chances for deal that could have saved their loved ones, at funerals in Nirim and Nir Oz
Hundreds gathered on Wednesday to pay their last respects to three of the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza earlier this week as they were brought to their final resting places.
The bodies of Yagev Buchshtav, 35, Nadav Popplewell, 51, and Avraham Munder, 78, were recovered from Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, during an overnight operation on Monday night, along with those of deceased hostages Alex Dancyg, 75, Chaim Peri, 79, and Yoram Metzger, 80.
Munder, Dancyg, Peri, and Metzger were all abducted alive by Hamas from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, while Buchshtav and Popplewell were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nirim.
Speaking through tears and holding one of the pet dogs she had shared with her husband close to her side, Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav stood in front of his coffin draped in an Israeli flag and parted from him for the last time.
“I wanted to say thank you,” she said. “Thank you for saving me. Not just on October 7 — you’ve been saving me for years.
“Thank you for teaching me about love and for making me stronger, I love you,” she said, adding that he “deserved so much better.”
Rimon was taken hostage with Yagev on October 7, and was released on November 28 as part of a weeklong truce. The couple were together throughout her captivity, and when informed of her release she said she wouldn’t leave Yagev behind, but was told to go willingly or be dragged on the floor.
Mourning the loss of her son, Yagev’s mother Esther Buchstav criticized the government for failing to return him alive.
“In what world does a family sit shiva (the Jewish seven-day mourning period) and wait for their dead son to return?” she asked. “In what world should a mother be grateful for the return of her son, who was abandoned and murdered?”
“In what world must families beg, scream and cry for the return of their loved ones, alive or murdered? Bring them all back,” she said while standing in front of her son’s grave.
Nadav Popplewell was buried in a ceremony following the one for Buchstav, also in the Kibbutz Nirim cemetery. He was laid to rest next to his brother Roi, who was murdered on October 7.
Popplewell was taken captive with his mother Channah Peri, 79, who was released on November 24.
“You took care of me in captivity like you always took care of me,” Peri said over her son’s grave. “When I was released from captivity, you were alive with all the men. But nobody came for you, nobody worried after you.”
“I’m leaving you next to Roi and you will both take care of each other, next to your beloved father,” she said. “And I know that in the future, we will see each other.”
In the nearby Kibbutz Nir Oz, Avraham Munder was accompanied by hundreds to his final resting place. He was buried next to his son, Roee, who was reinterred in the kibbutz cemetery on Wednesday after he was temporarily buried elsewhere in the aftermath of October 7.
His funeral was attended by former prime minister Naftali Bennett and at least two government ministers, and speeches were interspersed with songs in Hebrew to honor Munder — a music lover and amateur singer.
Munder was abducted from his home on October 7, after his wife Ruti, their daughter Keren and her eight-year-old son Ohad had already been kidnapped. All three were released on November 24, and only then learned that Avraham had been abducted, not killed as they had believed.
“How naive we were to think you would come back,” Keren said, “how naive we were to think that there was someone to trust.”
Calling for the government to finalize the hostage-release and ceasefire deal currently on the table, Keren said that her father could have been saved.
“It would have been possible to rescue him from the torture that his body and soul endured, if they had not sought an image of some semblance of victory,” she said of the government.
Parting from her husband, Ruti thanked him for the 62 years that they shared, “58 of which we lived together in harmony despite our differences.”
You accepted me as I am, you made me feel loved and appreciated,” she said, choosing to focus not on how he died but on how he lived. “We raised the children, traveled Israel and the world, watched soccer games and basketball games — we did everything with love and with dignity.”
Avraham’s sister Shoshi Ben Ezra said she couldn’t understand how her “sensitive and kind-hearted brother, a man of labor and peace, whose love for his kibbutz and his country flowed was in his blood, spent the last months of his life in a tunnel with the feelings of abandonment and betrayal.”
Many who came to pay their respects to the deceased hostages on Wednesday lamented the fact that months of negotiations have yet to yield a deal releasing the rest.
“We were promised efforts to reach an agreement,” said Nissan Calderon, 56, whose brother Ofer Calderon, a French-Israeli, is still held captive in Gaza.
“We really hope that the agreement will be concluded immediately, so that we can save those who are still alive and bring back the dead to bury them, because every day that passes, they die. This is the proof,” said Calderon, wearing a T-shirt with his brother’s photograph.
Nir Oz resident Adriana Adar, whose nephew Tamir Adar‘s body is still in Gaza, said she felt “despair” above anything else.
“I haven’t stopped crying for days,” she said.
“This week, we’ve been going from one funeral to another. This could have been avoided. All those who are buried now could have come back alive, and the fact that they are buried here, is not enough to comfort us.”
It is believed that 105 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 30 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
