Body of Aviv Atzili, killed on Oct. 7, recovered from Gaza last week, IDF says
Atzili’s body was abducted into Gaza by Islamic Jihad after he was killed battling Hamas; Kibbutz Nir Oz calls the slain artist one of ‘the great pillars of the community’
Aviv Atzili was named on Sunday as the second hostage whose body was recovered by the Israel Defense Forces from southern Gaza’s Khan Younis last week.
The military had announced on June 11 the return of the body of slain hostage Yair Yaakov during an operation, as well as that of a second hostage who remained unnamed at the time.
Atzili, a warrant officer in the reserves and a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz’s civil defense squad, was killed battling Hamas-led terrorists in the Gaza border community on October 7, 2023. He was 49.
After being killed in battle, Atzili’s body was abducted by Palestinian Islamic Jihad to Gaza, according to the IDF. His wife, Liat, was also kidnapped but released in November 2023 as part of a weeklong truce.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered his condolences to Atzili’s family soon after he was identified.
“Aviv bravely went out to defend his Kibbutz Nir Oz, fell in battle against the murderers, and was kidnapped to the Gaza Strip,” the premier said in a statement.
“I would like to thank the IDF and the Shin Bet for their determined action to return him,” he continued. “We will not rest until we bring home all of our hostages — both the living and the dead.”
“Aviv was one of the great pillars of the Nir Oz community,” the kibbutz said in a statement in 2023 after he was declared dead. “Painter, cyclist, a lover of the land. May his memory be a blessing.”
Atzili ran a garage for the kibbutz’s agricultural machinery and was also an artist. In his free time, Aviv painted scenes from the kibbutz in miniature on tools and pieces of machinery.
“Aviv was a hardworking man,” said his friend and former teacher, Galia Heller. “Most of the time, he was busy fixing tractors, and he worked very hard.
“He didn’t take himself too seriously in his art; he just created honestly, and you feel that in his work,” Heller continued. “There’s no ego. Aviv was an artist without calling himself an artist. He looked at things differently; he had a good eye and an excellent aesthetic sense.”
In a Facebook post in February 2024, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum wrote that Atzili was a “peaceful and calm man with good karma” and that “everyone felt he was their best friend who always found the right words and advice.”
Atzili’s friend Yuval Mazour told Israel Hayom that he always had a smile on his face.
“He always helped everyone in the kibbutz,” Mazour said. “He was always there for the elderly, always lending a hand and a shoulder. He would always tell the truth.”
His wife, Liat, told The New York Times in June 2025 that Aviv was “an exceptional, extraordinary, unbelievable human being… There were very few things about him that annoyed me or that I had criticism of, and they sort of became almost nonexistent. He’s like this presence, and I wish he were really here physically.”
In addition to Liat, Atzili is survived by their three children, Ofri, 22, Neta, 20, and Aya, 19, as well as his parents, Telma and Yossi, and his brothers, Ronen and Yiftah.
Yaakov, the other slain hostage who was named last week, was also abducted from Nir Oz and murdered by Islamic Jihad terrorists during the onslaught.
The IDF operation to recover the bodies was carried out by the army’s 36th Division and was “enabled by precise intelligence” obtained by the military’s Hostages Headquarters unit, the Military Intelligence Directorate, and the Shin Bet, the IDF said last week.
After the bodies were brought to Israel and identified at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, also known as Abu Kabir, officials notified their families and the kibbutz.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are now holding 53 hostages, including 52 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023.
They include the bodies of at least 31 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said.
The Times of Israel Community.