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In a public statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogized Shtivi as “a man of great courage and heart.”
The family of slain hostage Idan Shtivi confirmed on Saturday evening that his body was rescued from the Gaza Strip in a joint Shin Bet-IDF operation several days earlier.
In the same mission on Thursday, the remains of Kibbutz Be’eri resident Ilan Weiss, a member of the local security squad killed in a shoootut with Hamas terrorists, were also recovered.
Weiss’ wife and daughter were kidnapped during the October 7 massacre but were returned to Israel in a November 2023 hostage deal.
While Weiss’ identity was revealed shortly after the rescue, it took several days of testing at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute to confirm that the second body was indeed that of Shtivi.
Ilan Weiss. (X Screenshot)
A student of government and sustainability at Reichman University, Shtivi was 28 years old at the time of his murder and abduction.
He is survived by his parents, a brother, a half-sister, and his girlfriend, Stav.
In a public statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eulogized Shtivi as “a man of great courage and heart.”
Shtivi was initially believed to have been kidnapped alive from the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023. But nearly a year later, his family was informed that forensic evidence and military intelligence showed he had been killed on that day.
His father, Eli, a vocal advocate for his son’s return, continued to cling to the hope that Idan was alive, despite those findings.
Speaking in May at a Holocaust Memorial event, Idan’s brother Omri described the chaotic scene at the time of the kidnapping.
After helping other partygoers escape, Omri said, Shtivi and several friends “were ambushed by terrorists.”
Footage taken from terrorists’ bodycams revealed that about 14 gunmen opened fire on their car.
“Idan ran out of the car; the attackers killed [two of his friends] that he tried to save,” Omri recalled. The bodies of his murdered friends were found next to the vehicle.
A critically wounded Shtivi then “hid under a tree for an hour and a half. No rescue came,” his brother added.
“He was abducted to Gaza by Hamas, and we never saw him again.”
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