At funeral of Oron Shaul, Herzog asks family for forgiveness for ‘years of torture’ they endured

By Amy Spiro

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20 January 2025, 3:14 pm

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Amy Spiro is a reporter and writer with The Times of Israel

Speaking at the funeral of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, whose body was recovered from Gaza over the weekend more than a decade after he was killed, President Isaac Herzog asks for forgiveness from the Shaul family “on behalf of the entire nation.”

“The dear Shaul family, in the name of the entire State of Israel, I ask forgiveness — for the years of torture you went through, for the waiting for your son and brother to return,” says Herzog. “Years that we did not fulfill our mission, our responsibility — to return him here, to the cradle of his birth.”

Shaul is being buried in Poria in the north after he was killed fighting in Gaza in 2014 and his was body held captive until it was found by the IDF in recent days.

“A decade has passed, and we are still forced to send our best sons and daughters to fight against those abominable enemies,” adds the president.

He references the return last night of Emily Damari, Doron Steinbrecher and Romi Gonen from Hamas captivity, and vows to return “all of them — down to the last one,” including Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, Israeli citizens who have been held in Gaza for years, and the body of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, who was also killed in 2014.

“We cannot leave even one home in Israel left in this state of waiting,” he says.