The bodies of six Hamas hostages were returned to Israel on Tuesday. Yagev Buchshtab was one of them. The 34-year-old Israeli was buried on Wednesday at Kibbutz Nirim in the south of the country.
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![The coffin of Yagev Buchshtab, one of the hostages captured in the October 7 attacks, is transported for burial in the cemetery of Kibbutz Nirim in southern Israel on August 21, 2024. (GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP)](https://www.francetvinfo.fr/pictures/PUXxDcxTRXqKZ1Occrfl2pwepzY/0x516:6000x3889/432x243/2024/08/22/yagev-66c6ebd487d3b047665606.jpg)
The Israeli army announced on Tuesday, August 20, that it had found the bodies of six hostages who died in the Gaza Strip in a tunnel. The funeral of one of them took place on Wednesday, August 21, in southern Israel, at Kibbutz Nirim, about two kilometers from Gaza. This hostage was named Yagev Buchshtab, 34, and had been kidnapped on October 7 by a Hamas commando in the south of the country.
A strong emotion ran through the kibbutz cemetery as Rimon addressed her husband, Yagev Bushshtab, in front of his coffin covered with wreaths of flowers. Her words still resonate in tribute to a man who was always turned towards others, says his sister Nofar, who cannot speak of him in the past tense: “Yagev was… is a man of peace”.
Yagev Buchshtab was a pacifist, left-winger, always quick to denounce abuses against Palestinians. “He was always on the side of the weakest. He was always there for them, for example when radical Jews attacked Palestinians, when they tore down their trees, they took to the streets to protest.”assures his family.
Hopes of seeing him alive again faded a month ago when the Israeli army announced his death in captivity. With the return of his remains, the family will be able to mourn.
“Our hearts are torn between a form of relief and deep sorrow.”
Maurane, Yagev Bouchshtab’s auntto franceinfo
“I want it to be known all over the world that we have lost a very great man. A profoundly good man.”says his aunt, Maurane. Yagev Buchshtab’s family took advantage of his funeral to call on Benjamin Netanyahu to bring back the 109 hostages still in the hands of Hamas, before it is too late.