‘Not how I imagined welcoming you back’: Oz Daniel laid to rest after return from Gaza

IDF Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel, whose body was returned from Gaza earlier this week, was laid to rest on Thursday, with hundreds of mourners attending the ceremony held at the Kfar Saba military cemetery.

Daniel, 19, of the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, from Kfar Saba, was killed on October 7, 2023, while battling against the Hamas invasion of southern Israel, and his body was taken captive to Gaza, where it was held for over two years. Two other crew members of his tank were also killed and their bodies abducted, while a fourth was captured alive, and eventually released last month.

Merav Daniel remembered her son as someone who had “heroism, belief, loyalty to your values ​​and to your people.”

“You always smiled, you gave of yourself without limit, you listened, you embraced, you loved,” she said.

“This is not how I hoped to meet you again, this is not how I imagined the day I would welcome you back,” Merav said. “But in this heartbreak, there is a moment of comfort, a breath of relief, of knowing deep down that you are finally here, on the soil of the land you loved so much, the land you swore to protect. And with your body, you kept this vow to the fullest.

“My Ozi, for two years we have been waiting for you. An entire people all over the world have been waiting with us. A people who walked this long road with us, who got up with us every morning and thought of you, who carried you in their hearts, in their prayers, in their songs, and in their tears,” she said. “Today, this entire nation is here, standing by your side. And I say to you, welcome home. And I say to you, thank you.”

She said that she had once discussed the possibility with her son that he could be taken hostage.

“You told me firmly: “Mom, if I come across someone and they try to kidnap me, I will resist with all my might and do everything to avoid being taken,” she said, adding that she had told him to act wisely. “But you stood before me with your beautiful, shining eyes, insisted, and said, ‘Mom, I will do everything, but I will not remain hostage.'”

“Thank you, my child, for all that you were, and for all that you are,” she said.

Officials who attended the funeral included President Isaac Herzog, former defense minister Yoav Gallant, and former IDF chief of staff Herzi Halevi — who both held those offices at the time of the Hamas attack — as well as Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz and Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter.

Recently released hostage Sgt. Nimrod Cohen, who was the lone survivor of the tank on October 7, was also at the funeral.

Hadar, Daniel’s twin sister, said, “You always were and will be the best brother I could ask for. Let there be no doubt, you managed to challenge me in many ways that to this day only you could.”

She noted that her twin brother was born 12 minutes after she was and that he delighted in noting that the delay made him her “little brother.”

“I know that you found that funny, and it always managed to make me laugh,” she said.

“Thank you for who you were to me for 19 years, for who you were to me for the past two years, and for who you will always be in my life and in the lives of those close to me who did not have the luck to know you,” continued Hadar. “I love you, my brother, you are always with me, your big sister by 12 minutes, Hadar.”

Daniel’s father used his eulogy to call for the return of the six remaining deceased hostages still held by Hamas.

“Today, we remind and remember that there are still six hostages who have not yet returned. We will say a prayer that all will be returned in the coming days.

Praising the tank crew, President Isaac Herzog said that they “fought with all their might, with incredible courage against a ruthless and unrestrained enemy. They knew they were endangering their lives, and they did everything to stymie the evil, to defend and protect the light.”

“There is an incredible divide between the love of life and joy at life, the light of good that emerges from the stories about you and the terrible and monstrous darkness that prevailed in our country on the day you were taken from us,” Herzog said of Daniel.

On the morning of the Hamas attack, Daniel was stationed with his fellow tank crew at the so-called “White House” IDF post between Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim. When the Hamas attack began, he set out to combat the invaders with his commander, Cpt. Omer Neutra, along with Sgt. Shaked Dahan and Cohen.

Their tank was attacked by Hamas terrorists with RPG fire and explosive devices. Daniel – the loader of the tank – and Neutra and Dahan were killed in the attack, and their bodies were taken to Gaza, while Cohen was abducted alive to the Strip.

Daniel’s family has said that after Hamas attacked the tank, Oz tried to grab a grenade from one of the gunmen and was shot and killed.

With no body to bury, his family decided to hold a funeral for him in Kfar Saba on February 26, 2024 – burying a blood-soaked uniform and stretcher – and to sit shiva, the seven-day mourning period. He is survived by his parents, Merav and Amir, and his twin sister, Hadar.

On Monday, Daniel’s remains were returned to Israel from Gaza by Hamas, along with those of Neutra and Col. Asaf Hamami.

Daniel was born in Beersheba, where he lived with his family until moving in the 3rd grade to Kfar Saba, where he attended local schools.

His family said Daniel loved playing Xbox, enjoyed superhero movies and the Marvel universe, and liked to draw. In the 3rd grade, he began learning guitar, and music became a significant part of his life, they said.

Daniel dreamed of a music career, devoting himself to playing and practicing and focusing his high school studies on music while being part of a number of bands. He loved to listen to and play a wide range of music, but in particular that of Guns N’ Roses.

After completing high school, he enlisted in the IDF in August 2022 and joined the Armored Corps, where he trained as a tank loader. He had been slated to begin a tank commander’s course shortly after the date on which he was killed.