Israeli household mourns ‘man of peace’ as physique returned from Gaza

From her home in East London, British-Israeli Sharone Lifschitz by no means gave up hope that her 84-year-old father Oded would return from the horror of Hamas captivity, after greater than 500 days.

He was a person of peace, a campaigner for, and a good friend of, Palestinians.

He was dragged from his dwelling by Palestinian gunmen on October seventh and killed in captivity after being taken to Gaza alive.

The return of his physique on Thursday was devastating information for Ms Lifschitz and her household, notably her mom Yocheved who was additionally a hostage however returned alive and now will be unable to reunite along with her husband of 63 years.

After figuring out Oded’s physique, the top of Israel’s Nationwide Institute of Forensic Medication stated he was killed in captivity greater than a 12 months in the past. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Workplace stated he “was murdered in captivity by the Islamic Jihad terrorist group.”

The BBC have been with Sharone, a filmmaker and educational, at her dwelling when the ceasefire was introduced final month.

She shed tears of pleasure and hope as finally she noticed a possibility the place she would uncover what had occurred to her father. After greater than a 12 months of him being held hostage, she did not know if he was alive or lifeless.

Sharone Lifschitz admitted then that at his age the hopes for his survival have been slim, however she additionally believed “miracles can occur.”

Ms Lifschitz has been an eloquent and dignified voice for the discharge of her father and the opposite hostages, and make clear the trauma the hostage households have confronted since their ordeal started.

“A technique or one other, we’ll know. We’ll know if he is nonetheless with us, if we are able to take care of him. We’ll know who we’re grieving for… My father did not deserve this.

However she recognised there have been “extra graves to come back.”

And now, one might be for her father.

Oded Lifshitz was a journalist and veteran campaigner for peace who drove sick Palestinians to hospitals in Israel for remedy. In his marketing campaign for Palestinian rights he met Yasser Arafat, then head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

He helped to discovered Kibbutz Nir Oz, the place he lived and was taken hostage from. It was a spot the place he was well-known for the cacti that he grew, the piano he performed and the grandchildren he adored.

His spouse Yocheved, who was freed as a hostage by Hamas in 2023, met then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar whereas held within the tunnels underneath Gaza – and informed him he must be ashamed of himself.

The British legal professionals supporting the household stated “Yocheved should be the one individual to have met Sinwar, Netanyahu and the Pope, and given all of them a chunk of her thoughts. That’s the sort of extraordinary individual she is.”

On Wednesday, as she obtained a peace award for her campaigning for the hostages, she stated: “Oded was an important fighter for peace. He had superb relations with Palestinians and the factor that hurts essentially the most is that they betrayed him.”

His household stated they may now mourn for a husband, father, grandfather and nice grandfather, however after “503 agonising days of uncertainty”, they’d “hoped and prayed for a unique end result.”