“We thought he would come back, but God had other plans," Hadassah Lazar, sister of Shlomo Mantzur, who was confirmed to be killed in Hamas captivity told KAN's Reshet Bet on Tuesday.
"I always said he gave me strength with his smile and his bright eyes. It’s hard to accept that he has been gone since October 7, that he was killed on the very first day," Lazar said.
The IDF informed the family that intelligence indicated Shlomo was murdered on October 7 during his abduction.
“They told us we could sit shiva even without the body, but after consulting a rabbi, we decided to wait. It was difficult, though we had prepared ourselves for every possibility,” Hadassah explained.
The family was given no further details.
Mantzur’s daughter-in-law, Hannah Mantzur, voiced her disappointment to KAN, saying, “We had hoped he would be released in this phase, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen.”
Shlomo Mantzur, a beloved family member
She described Shlomo as a deeply loved figure in their lives.
“He was someone everyone adored. Whenever he visited Jerusalem from Kissufim, family members would gather just to see and listen to him. Even those who were married still called him ‘Uncle’ instead of ‘Shlomo’ out of respect. Losing him is a huge loss.”
The family first learned of his abduction on the evening following Simchat Torah.
“Since we are religious, we hadn’t turned on the radio that day. Only at night did we begin to suspect he might be among the hostages, and the next morning, we received confirmation,” Hannah recounted. “From that moment on, we were struck with a terrible blow. We held onto hope that, perhaps, because he was a kind man who spoke and read Arabic, they would let him go.”
Testimonies indicate that Mansour’s wife, who was with him at the time, pleaded with the terrorists to spare his life. “She begged them, saying, ‘He’s an elderly man, what has he done to you?’” Hannah recalled.
For months, the family received no updates about his condition beyond confirmation that he was held in Gaza. “Yesterday, we were officially informed that he was no longer alive,” Hannah said with grief.
Mantzur is one of 33 hostages set to be released as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal. While Hamas did not disclose the names of the killed hostages, it confirmed to mediators that eight bodies would be returned along with 25 living captives.
At 85 years old, Shlomo Mantzur was the oldest hostage currently in Hamas captivity. He was abducted from his home on October 7 in front of his wife and driven to Gaza in his own car by Hamas terrorists.
Mantzur immigrated to Israel as a child with his family after surviving the Farhud massacre in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1941.