Hundreds gather for funeral of Israeli hostage who died in Gaza

Hundreds of people gathered at the small cemetery in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Tuesday to bid a final farewell to one of its founders who died while held hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Hamas returned the body of Oded Lifshitz to Israel on Thursday as part of an on-going ceasefire agreement that has halted the war in Gaza.

In addition to Lifshitz, the bodies of three other residents of Nir Oz Shiri Bibas and her two young sons who were killed while in captivity were returned over the weekend.

The three Bibas family members will be buried on Wednesday.

Lifshitz, then aged 83, was taken hostage from his home on the kibbutz during Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.

His wife, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was also taken hostage but released by Hamas after 18 days.

The funeral proceedings included eulogies from his wife, family members and friends, as well as an address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

In his address, Herzog asked Oded Lifshitz and his family for forgiveness, saying: "Forgiveness that the State of Israel did not protect you, your family and your kibbutz.

"Forgiveness that in the face of such inhuman cruelty, you were left to stand alone.

"Forgiveness that we did not manage to rescue you and bring you and all your friends home safely, out of the clutches of the murderers. I ask forgiveness."

Well-known Israeli artists also performed as part of the ceremony.

Hen Avigdori, whose wife and daughter were taken hostage from a neighbouring kibbutz and released in the first one-week truce in late November 2023, came to the funeral to show support.

"It should have ended differently, he should be here with us," Avigdori told AFP.

"This is not my first visit, and sadly, not my second or my last to the cemetery of Nir Oz," he said. "This kibbutz has become a symbol of the neglect."

"Just to see here the rows, the full row of people who were murdered here on October 7, and those who are waiting for their loved ones to be returned, is a difficult feeling," Avigdori said.

Lifshitz was a veteran journalist and a long-time defender of Palestinian rights.

In a long career with the now defunct, left-leaning newspaper Al Hamishmar, which was associated with the kibbutz movement, he advocated for peace with the Palestinians.

In 1972, he defended Bedouins who were expelled from the Sinai Peninsula by occupying Israeli authorities.

A decade later, during the Lebanese civil war and Israel's invasion of Lebanon, he was one of the first journalists to report on the Sabra and Shatila massacres in which Israeli-backed Christian militias killed between 800 and 2,000 Palestinians in Beirut refugee camps.

More recently, Lifshitz, an Arabic speaker, had been actively involved for years with Road to Recovery, an organisation which helps Palestinians receive medical treatment in Israel.

Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel had become symbols of the ordeal suffered by Israeli hostages since the Gaza war began.

Ariel was then aged four, while Kfir was the youngest hostage at just nine months old.

Hamas and its militant allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7 attack that sparked the war in Gaza.

Of that, there are 62 hostages still held in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.

mib-reg-jd/dcp

PROCTER & GAMBLE

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.