Newly released hostage attends funeral of his commander after body returned from Gaza

A former hostage recently freed by Hamas attended a solemn funeral in a Jerusalem cemetery on Wednesday and bid farewell to his commander.

Matan Angrest, who had returned to Israel only two days earlier, was among the hundreds of mourners gathered. He stood in front of a freshly dug grave, paying respects to his 22-year-old commander, Captain Daniel Peretz. Angrest also prayed for the safe return of others, specifically mentioning fellow unit member Sergeant Itay Chen, whose body remains in Gaza.

“It’s the least I can do for Daniel and the team that fought with me,” said Angrest, 22, his voice strong despite pallor and obvious weakness. “I’m sure they’re still protecting me from heaven.”

Angrest, Peretz and Chen were serving in a tank crew when they were taken during HamasLed attack on October 7, 2023; Militants killed 1,200 people israel And that day 251 were taken prisoner.

“I wish he could come back. I’m ready to go.” Gaza To bring him back,” Angrest said of Chen.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hamas was to return the bodies of all 28 dead hostages held in Gaza, but as of Wednesday only 10 bodies had been released. A decision was made not to take one hostage, and the identity of the two others was awaited.

This left some families in a devastating limbo for more than two years, unable to give their loved ones a proper funeral. Judaism It is an essential covenant with God, the dead, and the survivors.

Rabbi Benny Lau, a friend of the Peretz family, said, “It is our obligation to God, we take the body and return it to the ground.” “The soul belongs to God and returns to God, but the body is our responsibility.”

The three largest monotheistic religions – Christianity, islam And Judaism – Teach that a person’s soul continues to exist even after separation from the body after death. But in Judaism and Islam, there are also specific teachings that the body should be left as intact as possible and buried as quickly as possible with ritual cleansing and prayers.

“The idea of ​​honoring the dead is intrinsic to the Jewish life cycle,” explained Sharon Laufer, who has been volunteering as part of Jewish burial societies for decades, and is a reserve soldier in a special unit that identifies the bodies of dead soldiers and prepares them for burial. “The soul is not complete until the body is buried in the ground, and that is why it is so important to us.”

Under normal circumstances, this means that the last rites are performed within a day. In the case of the Jewish hostages, this translates into an ongoing struggle – including government negotiators and family prayers – to get everyone’s remains returned.

“We cannot close that chapter of these two years without returning all of them,” Lau said.

Many families celebrated along with the rest of the country at the return of the surviving hostages on Monday, but felt betrayed by those who had said the crisis was over and that the ubiquitous yellow ribbons and hostage posters could be removed.

Itay Chen was 19 when he was abducted on October 7 while performing mandatory military service. Chen was on duty because he had swapped weekends with another soldier so he could go to his brother’s bar mitzvah.

More than two years later, his body is still missing.

“It’s a weird feeling where you start the day anticipating getting the worst phone call you’ll ever get in your lifetime and then you’re disappointed when you don’t get that call,” said his father, Ruby Chen.

Along with dozens of people, Shlomit Grouda stood on the bridge Tel Aviv To watch a motorcade drive to the cemetery for the funeral of Guy Illouz, who was kidnapped from a concert and buried on Wednesday.

She said, “I fought for their return home, and I was happy for those who came back alive, now it’s time to bow our heads for those who did not come back alive.”

Ela Haimi watched as her husband, Tal Haimi, 41, emerged from the safe room where they were sheltering with their three children to protect their kibbutz after it was attacked by Hamas-led militants on October 7.

Later that day he got a call that his phone was being pinged. khan younisGaza. She took this as good news – he had been moved but was still close to home, she explained, showing the children a map.

Two months later, the Israeli military told him they believed he was killed in the attack and his body was taken to Gaza.

After two consecutive nights when Tal was not included among the bodies returned this week, Haimy said it no longer mattered to him how long it took – as long as he could finally be buried in his kibbutz.

“I think he deserves this honor. He went out first, he went out knowing that I was alone with the children among the terrorists, to protect us. And he did that,” Haimy said from her home in Nir Yitzhak. She returned there just this summer with her children – including a baby who was born seven months after his father was murdered.

She performed the last rites and went through the seven-day Shiv mourning period scheduled for 2023. But the temporary tomb contains only Tal’s helmet.

“The kids know he’s gone, and they don’t know where he is,” he said.

Rabbis and mental health experts say it is difficult for families to leave their homes until after they have buried their loved ones.

“We need to give them the time and possibility to move from terrible uncertainty to learning to live with the reality that the person is no longer there,” said Rabbi Mizel Even David. Their synagogue in Beer Sheva has celebrated funerals for victims of the attack in nearby kibbutzim as well as for soldiers killed in the war.

Judaism prescribes several periods of mourning after a burial, ranging from a seven-day shiva where family members are expected to stay at home and abstain from all regular routines to the one-month anniversary and beyond.

These rituals bring spiritual benefits to both dead and living relatives – and psychological ones as well.

Only when all the hostages are returned can their families and the entire country begin to heal from the symptoms of “painful grief,” said Dr. Einat Yehane, a rehabilitation psychologist at the Hostage Families Forum.

In Peretz’s eulogy at his funeral, his sister Adina Peretz said that standing near his grave pained her more than she thought possible. But there was also some peace in being closer to my brother than he had been for two years.

“May you finally rest in the Holy Land,” she said.

Closing the three-hour service, which featured speakers ranging from Peretz’s grandmother to the President of Israel, Shelly Peretz said that the fact that her son was finally returned to Israel — on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, the same day he was taken — made all the difference.

“Now your home is with us where you belong,” he said before gun salutes echoed late into the night.