On Sunday morning, the IDF Spokesperson announced that the IDF and the Shin Bet had located and recovered the bodies of the Hostages Almog Seroussi, Carmel Gat, Eden Jerusalem, Hersh Goldberg-Poland, Alexander Lubnov and Uri Danino, after they were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. After an identification procedure by the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, the team of Hostages in the Personnel Division, which is responsible for accompanying the families of the Hostages, the announcement was made to the families .This evening, the funerals of Almog, Uri, Alexander and Eden, were held, with the participation of masses who came to embrace the families.
In Ra’anana, the funeral of Almog Seroussi (26) took place with the participation of thousands. Almog left behind two parents, Yigal and Nira, two brothers and a sister, Amit Lahav and Shaked.
Almog’s brother came to the funeral with shirts printed with “Bring them home now.” Almog’s mother, Nira, eulogized him: “Thank you to everyone who speaks. My dear son, my love. How we prayed to embrace you, to see your smile. We were hoping to see you happy, surrounded by family and friends, but you were abandoned, day by day. You have been abandoned on the altar of the destruction of Hamas, the Philadelphi Route, Rafah. You and hundreds more. I wish we were the last. We need a deal to free the hostages. Almog, return to the arms of your lover and friends. We love you so much. You will always be in our hearts.”
The sister agreed: “My Almog has lasted 11 months. I can’t believe this happened. I was waiting so much for you to come back, I wanted you to start a family, but it never happened. Now you’re at the end of your life. I’m sorry, you don’t deserve this. Almogi, I promise you we will continue to be strong. I promise everyone will know who you were. The guy with the good eyes, who looks first at others and then at himself. You’re my object of admiration, my best friend. You were my hero and now you’re a hero of an entire country. There must be no more heroes like this. I will fight for all the hostages to return home.”
The brothers and sister finished: “Almog, our big brother, we don’t believe we’re standing here. All 11 months we were optimistic, but the Creator thought differently. You were our role model. You’ve always been there for us and you’ve been watching over us, and now you’re watching over us from above. We will always remember you.”
The IDF liaison officer eulogized Almog as well, and apologized to him and the family. “I was not on a mission to bring Almog back to his family,” he said. “After October 7, I came to the family and reported to them that Alamog was kidnapped, but alive. Before that, Yigal Sr. received a message that Almog was murdered, but he could not believe it and asked to see his son’s body. When they took him to see the body, it turned out to be another man. I promised my family that I would bring Almog back alive, but I didn’t fulfill the mission.”
At the same time as the funeral at Ra’anana, the funerals of Uri Danino, Alexander Lubanov and Eden Jerusalem were also held. The former Chief Rabbi of Israel, Yitzhak Yosef, called at Uri’s funeral that “to do everything for the release of the Hostages , even to release hundreds and thousands of murderous terrorists with blood on their hands. That’s how you have to do it.”
Ori’s brother, Aharon, eulogized: “How do we even begin? How do you approach a situation like this? You always said, “Smile, life is better.” But I ask myself: May I smile? Is life really better? In the last 330 days I have found no reason to smile, no reason to hold on to anything or anyone to rely on, except the Creator. You were the mainstay of the house, of my friends and mine. You always made me feel safe, safe, that no matter what, you would always be there to help and protect.
“Your smile was the best thing that ever happened to me, and today is my nightmare. I see him everywhere and can’t stop crying. Your smile was your trademark. I remember in fifth grade, when you were in basic training, and I moved to a new school and I wasn’t accepted there. I didn’t feel like I belonged, I didn’t feel in the right place. Three hours away, you stood at the school gate and hugged me so tightly that I still live to this day. You always made me feel good about myself and the others. You always made me believe. You were my protector, my comforting embrace, and you were basically everything to me. You were the light in my dark spots and the companion in my life journey. You chose to always put yourself last, you chose to save others even though you yourself were out there.
“You were always there for them, even though you needed a hug. There is no greater longing for your noisy teeth brushing in the morning, for coffee and songs for parties, for small-time conversations at night. Take care of your grandparents, we apologize for not doing enough. Everyone came to pay their respects, everyone heard you. Two-year-old boys prayed for you. I swore every morning I prayed, ‘Sorry, Ory, sorry from us.’”
The mother of Aden said: “I’m sorry. We prayed, we wanted to believe it wasn’t true. This is not how I imagined your ending. I wanted to get you alive, a lot of people wanted to get to know you – but not like that. I’m sorry we couldn’t save you.”
Anton, Alex’s brother, eulogized: “All these days I thought I’d see you. You always had a big smile on your face, and I loved advising you and guiding you. Now, after 331 days, I see you here. You left a lot of good things in this world, I remember all the startups and the laughs.” Alex’s wife said: “The love of my life, we swore until death do us part. So how did he split up? I’m talking about you in the past tense. God takes the best. I want to focus on you, on the love of life, on the freedom that those bastards took from you on October 7th.”
