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Ahead of Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum published a position paper on Tuesday about a grave concern that the 35 deceased hostages—civilians and soldiers who were killed and their remains were held in Gaza for 571 days—may "disappear" in a way that will make it impossible to locate and return them for burial, whether due to a lack of intelligence or the difficulty of identifying them after such a long time.
Meital Weiss, the daughter of Ilan Weiss and captivity survivor Shiri Weiss; Bar Godard, the daughter of Meny Godard; Merav Daniel, the mother of Sergeant Oz Daniel; and Dalit Madar, the niece of Judi Weinstein-Haggai and Gadi Haggai, spoke to reporters about the report.
The report outlines two central concerns. The first is the loss of information. "There is a fear that the locations of many of the fallen are known only to a few individuals who may be killed or disappear during combat without leaving behind organized documentation. As time passes, the intelligence gap deepens, and the possibility of obtaining direct and reliable information for locating and retrieving them diminishes," the report stated.
The second concern highlighted in the report, alongside intelligence gaps, was the potential harm to the integrity of the fallen remains due to environmental conditions. "The conditions in Gaza—intense heat, flooding, collapses, and more—damage the integrity of the remains and make identification and understanding the circumstances of their deaths in a future investigation more difficult," the report noted.
"On Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism, when Israel unites to honor its fallen and their memory, the urgency to bring the fallen hostages back for respectful burial becomes clearer. The position paper warns that the passage of time erodes evidence, erases findings, and undermines the likelihood of their return, thereby impairing the ability to enable both personal and national recovery," Hostages and Missing Families Forum said. The authors of the document call for immediate action to return all 59 hostages, including the 35 fallen.
"We refuse to live in a status of 'burial place unknown'"
Prof. Hagai Levine, head of the health division at the Families’ Headquarters, explained: "There is a real danger to the fallen hostages, one that could undermine the ability to bring them back for a proper burial." He emphasized: "Returning the fallen hostages for respectful burial and rehabilitating the lives of the survivors are fundamental conditions for healing the personal, social, and national wound. This is a moral and national obligation of the State of Israel toward its citizens, part of the unwritten social contract on which Israeli society is built. Without the return of the fallen hostages and the absence of certainty, families are left as living-dead, and the fallen remain as dead-living. This wound undermines the trust on which the entire social fabric is built."
Merav Daniel, the mother of Staff Sergeant Oz Daniel, who fell on October 7 in the Gaza periphery and whose body is held by Hamas, addressed Memorial Day in the families' statement. "Soon we will enter the most painful day on the Israeli calendar—a day that has become routine for me and my family. My son Oz was a brave tank fighter. He was stationed by the state in the Gaza division, where he fought and defended the citizens of Israel on that terrible and nightmarish morning."
She shared how, in the early months of the war, she and her family clung to the hope that Oz had survived. "I imagined what the moment would look like when he returned, but after 142 days of nerve-wracking waiting, we received the most terrible news of all: Oz was killed in battle on that cursed day.
"We were not granted the chance to bring Oz to eternal rest. Bringing the fallen to burial is not a luxury or a privilege—it is a duty of a society that values life. It is the duty of a society that sends its children to the battlefield. There is an unwritten covenant between the state and its sons and daughters—they give their lives for it, and it is obligated to bring them home. Alive, and if, God forbid, they fall, then for an honorable burial in the land they loved so much and for which they fought."
"The ground by my mother’s grave waits for my father"
On the eve of Memorial Day, Bar Godard said in the families' statement: "We are a bereaved family for the second year on Memorial Day, the saddest day of the year. But the truth is that for the past year and a half, every day has been just as sad and painful. More than 1,850 killed since the day that changed our lives forever. More than 1,850 worlds and families shattered to pieces."
She shared that on Wednesday, while crowds visit cemeteries, she will stand by her mother’s grave. "On the blood-soaked ground of Kibbutz Be’eri. My parents were never apart their whole lives. Even on that terrible day, they were murdered together. In their home. The ground by my mother’s grave waits for my father. So they can finally reunite and be buried together. In the meantime, my mother’s grave is exposed and bare, waiting for my father. And we wait too. Waiting to close this circle.
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"My parents disappeared in one day from the face of the earth, leaving nothing behind. Our memories burned completely with the house. The report that has been published troubles us and keeps us awake at night. After everything we went through on that day and since, it cannot be that my father’s body will also disappear from the face of the earth, and we will not be able to fulfill such a basic commandment—to bury the dead. To bury my father in the place he loved so much. We deserve to live in a country where people come first. Before chairs and jobs. Before schemes and quarrels. The living hostages and the fallen must come first."
"We will not allow them to be forgotten or erased"
Dalit Hagai Madar said: "I am the niece of Gadi Hagai and Judy Weinstein Hagai from Nir Oz. They were shot and kidnapped and to this day are held captive as fallen hostages. We are here today to say clearly: it is not only the living hostages who are in danger—the fallen hostages are too. We will not allow their memory to be forgotten, we will not allow them to be erased, we will not allow them to be left behind. Memorial Day forces us to confront the pain tied to the uncertainty of their fate and burial. We refuse to live in a status of 'Burial Place Unknown.'"