Following the transfer of the four hostages’ bodies late Wednesday night, the bodies were identified at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv as Ohad Yahalomi, H’yd, Itzik Elgarat, H’yd, Shlomo Mantzur, H’yd, and Tzachi Idan, H’yd.

Kibbutz Nir Oz later announced that Yahalomi and Elgarat had been murdered in captivity.

Yahalomi, H’yd, 50, was shot and wounded by Hamas terrorists on October 7th as he tried to protect his wife and three children in their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.

The terrorists then took his wife Batsheva and children, Eitan, 12, and two younger sisters, and put them on mopeds to take them to Gaza along with a foreign worker. The terrorists began driving towards the Gaza Strip but when they approached the fence, they spotted an IDF tank and Batsheva’s driver panicked. In those moments, Batsheva managed to flee with her girls but Eitan’s driver continued into the Strip.

The terrorists later abducted Ohad as well. Eitan was returned to Israel in the November 2023 deal.

Elgarat, H’yd, 68, was abducted from his home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 after suffering a serious injury on his hand from gunfire. He was a much beloved member of the kibbutz and is survived by two children, a brother and two sisters.

Mantzur, H’yd, 85, whose murder in captivity was announced earlier this month, was the oldest hostage in Gaza. He was a survivor of the 1941 Farhud pogrom in Iraq and immigrated to Israel in 1951. On October 7, he was abducted from his home on Kibbutz Kissufim by Hamas terrorists who beat him, bound him, and dragged him to Gaza.

The terrorists tried to abduct his wife Mazal as well, calling her by name, pretending to be Shlomo, and even setting the house on fire. But she managed to escape and was rescued many hours later by IDF forces.

Tzachi Idan’s cause of death has not yet been announced. The horrific and shocking ordeal suffered by the Idan family on October 7 was filmed by the Hamas terrorists on Idan’s wife Gali’s phone and live-streamed on her Facebook account.

The ordeal began when Tzachi’s oldest daughter, Maayan, H’yd, 18,  died in his arms after the Hamas terrorists fired through the door of the safe room where the family was huddling. After several hours, during which the terrorists filmed and live-streamed the shocked family as the younger two children cried and asked whether they would ever see Maayan, z’l, again, they abducted Tzachi, H’yd, who was still in a state of shock from witnessing his daughter’s murder.

Gali and the younger two children, Yael, 12, and Shachar, 10, survived. Another daughter, Sharon, 15, was not at home on October 7 as she was on an overnight visit to a relative in Tel Aviv.

His family published a statement on Thursday saying: “Our family’s unbearable journey to return our beloved Tzachi from the hell in Gaza ended with the identification of his body in Israel.”

“Tzachi was abducted alive and we received several signs of life from him during his captivity. He will be brought to eternal rest next to his beloved daughter, Maayan, H’yd who was murdered on October 7 while trying to help her father guard the door of their safe room.”

“Tzachi left behind a mother, three brothers, a wife and three children, an extended family and many friends. We thank you again for the much love and support we have received and continue to receive during these difficult times.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)