IDF confirms death of Cpt. Daniel Perez, 22; body still held in Gaza

On March 17, 2024, the IDF confirmed the death of Cpt. Daniel Perez, 22, who was killed on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken hostage to Gaza. This is the story of his capture:

Cpt. Daniel Perez, 22, from Yad Binyamin, served as a platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, and his body was taken from the Gaza border, following a battle with terrorists during the Hamas onslaught on October 7.

On the same day, Perez’s older brother, Yonatan Perez, was shot in the leg during a five-hour gun battle with the terrorists in the Gaza envelope.

“There was death and destruction all around. RPGs everywhere. Every army vehicle had been destroyed,” said Yonatan and Daniel’s father, Doron Perez, citing Yonatan.

Ten days later, the Perez family decided to go ahead with the long-planned wedding of Yonatan and his fiance, Galya Landau.

“We couldn’t really think about [the wedding] for the first few days, and with Yonatan injured, we didn’t quite know what to do,” said the senior Perez, a rabbi and executive chairman of the Mizrachi World Movement.

But five days after the bloody onslaught, when Daniel was officially declared a hostage in Gaza and it became clear that Yonatan would recover quickly, the families decided to go ahead with the wedding.

Daniel’s absence was palpable, his father has said.

“When the rabbi mentioned him, it was very, very hard and I broke down,” said his father. “I had my son holding me up, instead of me holding him up.”