The body of killed hostage Itay Svirsky has been recovered from Gaza, the IDF announced on Wednesday evening.
"In an operation by the Shin Bet with the assistance of the IDF, the body of the hostage Itay Svirsky was brought from the Gaza Strip for burial in Israel," a joint statement said.
Svirsky, 38, a resident of Tel Aviv, was visiting his family in Kibbutz Be'eri on Saturday October 7, and was kidnapped alive to Gaza. His parents, Orit and Rafi Svirsky, were murdered in the massacre at the kibbutz.
Some 102 days after the Hamas attack, the IDF informed the families of Svirsky and Be'eri resident Yossi Sharabi that the two men had been murdered in captivity and that their bodies were being held in Gaza.
Just two days earlier, the two men appeared in a psychological terror video released by Hamas, alongside Noa Argamani, 26, who had been kidnapped from the Nova music festival.
Days before, Itay's sister Meirav told Ynet that she was cautiously optimistic a deal for the release of captives could be reached, amid reports that negotiations were taking place. "It give us some hope," she said at the time. "I want to see that this is an offer that is taken, accepted." She said in the same interview that she had already received a sign of life from her brother, and had learned about the circumstances of his abduction."
"We know the terrible conditions they are in. Terrible trauma. The situation there is very difficult. I am very happy to know that he is alive. He conveyed a message that he is alive, and I will do everything to get him out of there. Both my parents were murdered," she said. But less than a week later she received the difficult news that he had been murdered in captivity.
Following the announcement of the recovery of Svirsky's body, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement that: "The heart breaks at the heavy loss of the Svirsky family, which also lost Itay's parents, Orit and Rafi of blessed memory, who were murdered in Hamas's deadly attack. Yesterday I met with Shin Bet personnel and I would like to express deep appreciation to them and to the IDF, for their brave operation to recover Itay's body."
"We will continue to take determined and relentless action to return all of our hostages, the living and the dead," the prime minister also said.
Noa Argamani, who was kidnapped to Gaza on October 7 and rescued in Operation Arnon in June, paid tribute to Svirsky in an Instagram story: "Dear Itay, during our joint stay in captivity we imagined together thousands of situations of how we would return to Israel together, meet for coffee after everything is over and laugh about everything. Not for a moment did we think that this is how you would return to Israel. Thank you for every moment, you were my friend, a big brother inside this dark place. You taught me so many things that I will take with me no matter where I go."