Israeli army announces repatriation of body of new hostage found in Gaza

The Israeli army announced on Saturday May 18 that it had repatriated the body of an Israeli, Ron Benjamin, 53, recovered in the Gaza Strip. According to “verified information in our possession, Ron Benjamin was assassinated (…) on October 7” And “his body taken to Gaza” by Hamas, explained the spokesperson for the Israeli army, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. “After the identification procedure”his family was informed on Saturday.

His body was found with those of three hostages – Shani LoukAmit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter – whose repatriation of the bodies was announced on Friday. The spokesperson for the Israeli army clarified on Friday that the bodies of these hostages had been recovered “during a joint operation between the army and the intelligence agency” on the basis of information obtained in particular “during interrogation of terrorists arrested in the Gaza Strip”.

On the morning of October 7, the day of the Hamas attack on southern Israel, Ron Benjamin had planned a bike ride near the border with the Gaza Strip. Having left home around 6:30 a.m. to join friends at Kibbutz Beeri, he turned around to return when he heard the sirens. After calling his wife Ayalet, he left a voice message at 7:30 a.m. on the cell phone of one of his daughters, then abroad, his last sign of life. His older brother, Shuki, found his car riddled with bullets on the side of the road.

“The sacred mission of repatriating the body” by Ron Benjamin “will allow his family to grant him eternal rest in the land of Israel”reacted in a press release the Forum of Hostage Families, the main association of relatives. Of the 252 people taken as hostages on October 7, 124 are still detained in Gaza, of whom 37 are dead according to the Israeli army.