It was revealed on Thursday that Aryeh Zalmanovich, H’yd, 85, was the Jewish captive who was murdered next to Kaid Farhan Al-Qadi, the Bedouin-Israeli captive rescued from Gaza on Tuesday.

Qadi, who was held with other captives in the first two months after his abduction, told security forces, relatives, and former Rahat Mayor Ata Abu Madighem that he experienced a great emotional crisis when a Jewish captive was murdered next to him.

Channel 12 News reported on Thursday that the IDF connected Qadi with Zalmanovich’s family. Qadi told Zalmanovich’s son that he and his father were held in a Gazan hospital for a period of time – until Zalmanovich, H’yd, was murdered. He added that shortly after the murder, he was moved underground where he was held alone until his rescue.

Aryeh’s son Boaz, told Kan News: “Abba was in the hospital in the southern Gaza Strip with Farhan throughout the entire time of captivity, about 40 days, and they developed a special bond. Farhan was also wounded but took care of Abba and supported him. Dad was old and sick and didn’t receive proper medication and treatment. He was murdered in physical and mental agony – they didn’t always just shoot them. Abba told Farhan that he loves us and was worried about the members of the kibbutz, he knew what happened to them.”

Qadi recounted his experience, saying that he saw Zalmonvich, H’yd, dying as Hamas terrorists filmed the scene. “Right after, they filmed me as well, and I saw how he was killed. During that time, they operated on me to remove a bullet from my leg, with almost no anesthesia—it was excruciating. After about two months, they moved me to a tunnel, where I was kept alone, surrounded by guards, unable to tell day from night.”

Zalmanovich, z’l, one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was abducted on October 7 from his home on the kibbutz, the oldest Israeli to be taken into captivity. Forty days later, Hamas released a cruel video showing him lying on a bed, connected to a monitor and complaining he didn’t feel well. He was then seen completely still and wrapped in a white sheet.

The IDF confirmed Zalmonich’s murder in December.

About a week and a half ago, a video circulated on Palestinian social media showing Zalmanovich during his abduction to Gaza. The video shows a cruel scene of Zalmanovich, bleeding and bruised and being driven on a motorcycle with his abductors sitting in front and behind him and surrounded by jubilant “innocent” Gazan civilians trying to reach the motorcycle and beat him. In front of the motorcycle, terrorists [or perhaps “innocent” civilians] can be seen driving a stolen Israeli agricultural tractor.

Zalmanovich, a father of two and a grandfather of five and an experienced agriculturist, was abducted from his safe room in his home, where he was hiding alone. When the terrorists found him, they beat him with a stick, including on his head, and abducted him to Gaza without his glasses and hearing aid.

Hostages who were held with him and released from Gaza in the November hostage deal said that he became extremely weak in captivity without his medications and had difficulty eating. Before his abduction, he was an independent and healthy man for his age. Every day, he donned work clothing every morning and went out to the fields and drank coffee with the other farmers.

Hashem Yikam Damo.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)