Son of Oded Lifshitz: Slain hostages ‘suffered tragic, agonizing deaths, without their families by their sides’

The son of Oded Lifshitz, whose body is expected to be returned by Hamas from Gaza this morning, says the four slain hostages being handed over today “suffered tragic, agonizing deaths, without their families by their sides.”

“This anger will stay with us forever,” Yitzhar Lifshitz tells Army Radio.

“It’s not over for anyone today, even when the end is tragic,” he adds. “We continue to pray for the hostages and the fallen who still need to be returned.”

Lifshitz, aged 83 at the time, was kidnapped from his home on Kibbutz Nir Oz in Hamas’s brutal October 7, 2023, onslaught. His wife, Yocheved, was kidnapped separately that day and released by Hamas 16 days later.

As of this morning, 70 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — 14 Israeli civilians, five soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.