‘The best of humanity’: Hundreds attend funeral of slain hostage Meny Godard

Hundreds of people gather at the cemetery at Kibbutz Be’eri as Meny Godard, who was murdered in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, and whose body was held hostage for more than two years, is laid to rest.

Godard, 73 at the time of his death, was killed at the kibbutz along with his wife, Ayelet. His body was returned to Israel last week.

Godard’s family says in a statement that he “loved this land, its songs and its people,” according to the Maariv daily.

The Godards are survived by four children, as well as grandchildren.

The kibbutz, where dozens of residents were killed in the October 7 attack,  held a funeral for the couple shortly after their murder, before Godard’s body had been returned.

“When we look around at the gravestones of all of the members buried in the Be’eri cemetery, we can see that on October 7, Hamas terrorists murdered the best of humanity!” President Isaac Herzog, who delivered a eulogy at today’s funeral, posts on X afterward.

“We are parting ways today with Meny and Ayelet, an inseparable couple in their love, in their lives and in their deaths,” he adds. “Now they are together again, and we, who are in pain and mourning, are by their side.”