Murdered hostage Carmel Gat laid to rest on Kibbutz Be’eri
Jessica Steinberg, The Times of Israel's culture and lifestyles editor, covers the Sabra scene from south to north and back to the center
Carmel Gat, one of six hostages murdered in Hamas captivity last week is laid to rest in Kibbutz Be’eri, where she was born and where she was taken captive on October 7, while visiting her parents.
The funeral was closed to media in deference to Gat, who, her cousin Gil Dickman says, was a private person.
“Our fight for her was very public,” says Dickmann. “We had many discussions about whether she’d be angry at us for showing parts of her life, like her yoga, but we’ll never know whether she saw us or how she felt about this.”
Gat’s family planned on telling the story of her life at her funeral.
“Many people told us she just was sunlight that brightened the room or a rainbow, because of all the colors in her,” says Dickmann. “We want to remember my cousin, who was a private person, but a people person.”
Members of the southern kibbutz, one of the worst hit in Hamas’s October 7 massacre, line the nearby junction in Gat’s honor ahead of the burial.
לא נשכח, לא שוכחים: כשברקע ההספד לכרמל גת ז״ל, חברי קיבוץ בארי חולקים לה כבוד בצומת של הקיבוץ. יהי זכרה של כרמל הנהדרת ברוך pic.twitter.com/wC3SYfYE1D
— Raz Shechnik (@RazShechnik) September 2, 2024
Earlier today, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Gat, along with two other murdered hostages, were on a list of “humanitarian hostages” whose release Israel was expecting in the first phase of a potential ceasefire-hostage deal.
The three were among six hostages murdered by their Hamas captors at the end of last week, whose bodies were found by the IDF in a Gaza tunnel on Saturday and brought back to Israel.
