Mother of hostage slain by troops seeks to retrieve son’s sperm to produce grandchild
Iris Haim says she doesn’t want a surrogate to carry child of her son Yotam, but someone who wants to be a mother; jokes she’d be ‘happy with a ginger grandchild’
Iris Haim, the mother of Hamas hostage Yotam Haim, who was accidentally shot dead by the IDF in December 2023 as he tried to reach freedom, said Friday she is beginning a process to use her slain son’s sperm to make a grandchild.
In an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Haim said she was looking for a woman to provide the egg and carry the child — not just as a surrogate — but as someone who would be a mother to the child and become a member of her family.
“We have sperm, which is an amazing thing that really helps,” she said, adding that it will give her late son continuity. “The child who is born will have a father figure. [The mother] will be able to talk to him about his father, Yotam, and he will have a family — us. This gives us a lot of hope and light in this darkness.”
Haim has submitted a request to the Beersheba Family Court to get legal permission to use the sperm.
Asked what kind of mother she wanted for her grandson, Haim joked, “I’d be happy with a ginger grandchild, but this is not a special request.”
She said that while she “never imagined” a mother for her grandchild, she would like her to have “love, compassion and maturity.”
Haim said that out of her three children, Yotam was the only one who actively spoke about children.
“He said he wanted to be a father like his own father,” she said.
Yotam Haim, 28, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Kfar Aza by rampaging Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. On December 10 of that year, he was accidentally killed by Israeli troops in Gaza as he tried to reach freedom. The soldiers mistook him and two other hostages as a threat in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.
The Times of Israel Community.