From the Liveblog of
Sunday, October 19, 2025
Ronen Engel identified as one of the bodies returned overnight by Hamas
One of the bodies returned last night by Hamas is slain hostage Ronen Engel, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and Kibbutz Nir Oz announce.
The Families Forum says it “embraces the Engel family,” calling the return “a form of relief for a family living in agonizing uncertainty and doubt for over two years.”
The Prime Minister’s Office and the IDF confirm the identification of Engel, and say that the process of identifying the other body returned overnight is still ongoing.
On October 7, 2023, Engel was killed by Hamas in Nir Oz while his wife Karina and their daughters Mika and Yuval were kidnapped.
The following month, Karina, Mika and Yuval were freed from Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal. In December of that year, the IDF confirmed that Ronen had been killed and his body was held hostage. It later emerged that Ronen had been slain in the kibbutz on October 7 and his remains taken captive.
In addition to his wife and two daughters, Ronen is survived by his son, Tom, who was not home that weekend, and his brother, Dani.
Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Engel moved with his family to Nir Oz in 2010, according to a statement shared this morning by the Families Forum.
He was a photographer, a volunteer medic at the Magen David Adom ambulance service, a motorcyclist who enjoyed exploring Israel’s nature, and an artist who used discarded scrap iron as his raw material.
The Times of Israel Community.