"We received with deep sorrow the official and bitter news confirming the identification of our beloved Oded's body," the family of slain hostage Oded Lifshitz said after learning that his body, returned in the hostage deal Thursday, had been identified.
"Five hundred and three agonizing days of uncertainty have come to an end. We had hoped and prayed so much for a different outcome. Now we can mourn the husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who has been missing from us since October 7," the family added.
"Our family's healing process will begin now and will not end until the last hostage is returned."
Lifshitz, an 83-year-old who helped found Kibbutz Nir Oz, was a lifelong peacenik and Palestinian rights advocate; Lifshitz worked for years for daily paper Al HaMishmar before his retirement.
"He dedicated his life to helping others," the Hostage Family Forum said, adding that "his grandchildren called him 'Super Grandpa' for his wisdom and love."
His work and his life
In his work as a journalist, Lifshitz reported extensively on the Bedouin sector in Israel and reportedly took a case to the High Court, which resulted in the return of some of their land, AP reported.
He was part of an organization called Road to Recovery that helped Palestinians cross the Erez border in order to receive treatments in Israeli hospitals. “They have been human rights activists, peace activists for all their lives,” his grandson told Reuters.
Because of his experience in activism and his connections to the Arab world, his daughter said that he was more than aware of how destructive jihadist forces were.
Lifshitz had an unclouded vision of what could happen if Israeli-Palestinian divisions festered to a point beyond return.
“When the Palestinians have nothing to lose, we will lose, big time,” Lifshitz wrote some years ago in Haaretz. “The question is, what do we do then?”