Israeli forces recovered the body of slain hostage Ilan Weiss from Gaza on Friday, nearly 22 months after the 56-year-old Kibbutz Be’eri resident was killed defending his community during Hamas’s October 7 massacre.
The joint operation by the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security service also retrieved remains of another hostage whose identity has not yet been cleared for publication, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced. The second set of remains is undergoing forensic examination at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.
Weiss served as deputy head of Kibbutz Be’eri’s emergency response team and was killed while trying to distribute weapons to community defenders during the Hamas assault. He left his home at 7:15 AM on October 7, 2023, to join the kibbutz standby squad and was never heard from again.
Hamas terrorists had taken Weiss’s body into Gaza along with his wife Shiri, 53, and daughter Noga, 18, who were both abducted during the attack. The two women were released in November 2023 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States.
Weiss’s death was confirmed in January 2024 through forensic examination, but his body remained in Hamas custody in Gaza until Friday’s recovery operation. His family endured 692 days of uncertainty before his remains were finally brought home to Israel.
The Weiss family suffered devastating losses during the October 7 massacre that struck Kibbutz Be’eri particularly hard. Weiss’s brother Amir and sister-in-law Mati were killed when terrorists threw grenades into their home. Even the family dog, Ketem, was killed during the attack.
Weiss’s daughter Noga, who was held hostage for 50 days, enlisted in the IDF in May 2024 as a social welfare soldier. During her enlistment ceremony, she said joining the military helped her process what happened while contributing to her country’s defense.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that alongside the “grief and pain,” the recovery of Weiss’s body “provides some comfort to the family after 692 days of waiting in the nightmare of uncertainty.”
With today’s heroic recovery, 48 hostages remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to still be alive. The operation came as Israel announced it had begun preliminary military operations on the outskirts of Gaza City, calling the area a dangerous combat zone.
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