Family of hostage Oded Lifshitz says his body has been identified

Shortly after the identification process begins for the four bodies handed over this morning by Hamas, the family of hostage Oded Lifshitz announces that their loved one has been confirmed as being one of them.

Lifshitz, 83, a lifelong peace activist and one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was kidnapped from his home there on October 7, 2023. His wife Yocheved was abducted separately and released 16 days later.

“We received with sorrow the official and bitter news about the identification of the body of our beloved Oded,” the Lifshitz family says in a statement carried by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

It says that “503 agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end,” adding: “We hoped and prayed so much for the ending to be different. Now we can mourn the husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who we have been missing since October 7.

“Our family’s rehabilitation will start now and won’t end until the last hostage is returned.”