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Tearful crowds gathered on Wednesday for the funeral of the bodies of hostages recovered this week from the war-torn Gaza Strip, with some mourners expressing anger that the bodies had not been rescued.
“In what world do families beg, scream and cry for their loved ones to come back, alive or murdered? Bring them all back,” said Esther Buchshtab, standing at the grave of her son Yagev.
The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that the bodies of 34-year-old Yagev and five other hostages were recovered from a tunnel in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza after fighting with Palestinian militants.
They were among 251 hostages taken by Hamas in the unprecedented October 7 attack that sparked the war.
Of these, 105 remain hostages in the Gaza Strip, and the military says 34 have died.
Yagev’s widow, Rimon Kirshit, also spoke at Wednesday’s memorial service in Nirim, standing in front of the coffin draped with an Israeli flag.
“All I want in my life is to say sorry. You deserve better,” she said.
“Thank you for teaching me. I’m yours. I’m here.”
The crowd quickly dispersed to the nearby Nir Oz kibbutz for the funeral of another hostage, Avraham Mond (79), whose body was found on Tuesday.
Niel Oz was the scene of one of the worst massacres on October 7, when more than 70 residents were taken captive.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and at least two current government ministers attended the funeral in Nir Oz, which featured speeches and songs sung in Hebrew in memory of Mond, a music lover and amateur singer.
– ‘Funeral after funeral’ –
According to AFP statistics based on official Israeli data, the October 7 attack killed 1,199 people in Israel, most of them civilians.
Israel’s retaliatory military action has killed 40,223 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, but the ministry did not give specific details of civilian and militant deaths.
Many who came to mourn the slain Israeli hostages on Wednesday lamented that months of negotiations had yet to yield a deal to free the rest.
“We are committed to working towards a deal,” said Nissan Kalderon, 56, whose brother, Ofer Kalderon, a French-Israeli, remains imprisoned in Gaza.
“We really hope that an agreement can be reached immediately so that we can save those who are still alive and bring back the dead to bury them, because with every day that passes, someone dies. This is the proof,” Calderon said, wearing a T-shirt with a picture of his brother.
Nir Oz resident Adriana Adal, whose nephew Tamir Adal’s body remains in Gaza, said she could not express in words the “despair” she felt.
“I haven’t stopped crying for days,” she said.
“We’ve been to funeral after funeral this week. This could have been avoided. All of the people buried now have the potential to come back alive, but the fact that they’re buried here is not enough to comfort us.”
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