Israel grinds to a halt in grief today. Four of our own Israelis abducted by Hamas will return home, not to the embracing arms of their loved ones but to a country grieving from their savage murders. It will be a day of agony.
An abhorrent day. A day that will force us all again to confront the horrors of October 7, the savagery of our enemies, and the miserable human price of this war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation, warning that Thursday “will be a tough day for the State of Israel. A shocking day. A sorrowful day. We are bringing home four of our dear hostages, fallen heroes. We hug the families with all our hearts, and the heart of a whole nation is torn apart.
My heart is torn apart. Yours too. The heart of the whole world will break because here we find who we face, what we face, and what type of monsters we face. We are sad, hurting, but also adamant about ensuring something like this will never happen again.”
Words cannot describe the pain of these families, the unbearable weight they have carried for months – the waiting, the uncertainty, the pieces of hope dashed by a crushing confirmation. Today, they grieve. And today, we grieve with them.
Psychologically and emotionally, the toll taken on such families has been bitter. One of them was documented in a report filed by the medical department of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, listing the sheer extent of trauma inflicted upon them. “Families experience physical and mental breakdowns, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic effects that cripple their capability to function. Most are unable to return to regular schedules and work due to functional impairment and sleep disorders.”
The suffering of the families does not cease when the bodies of their loved ones come back – it will persist for years, bound by an incomplete loss.
We need to stop, breathe, take in, let the bereavement creep into our marrow. These Israelis were murdered, simply because they were Jewish, because they lived in Israel.
Their loss is a bitter reminder of the existential threat we continue to face, of the deep hatred that drives our enemies, and of the ultimate cost that so many have paid. But we can’t allow our grief to paralyze us. We need to remember. We need to unite.
There will be moments of outrage, moments of anger, moments of frustration, moments of helplessness. But let us turn them into fuel for determination. Let us stand together, and hold each other close as a people, as a nation, and as a family. Let us ensure the names of the dead are not just part of an ever-growing list of tragedies but are engraved in our collective memory.
Hamas will take the opportunity to sow disinformation
Even in death, Hamas will use the moment of return to sow disinformation and play games with the news. The IDF is bracing for Hamas to disseminate that these are casualties brought about by Israeli military action. “Officials vow that all the circumstances leading to the death will be thoroughly investigated and reported to the public openly,” Walla’s Amir Bohbot wrote on Wednesday.
Repatriation of the remains of the hostages will be with a carefully coordinated procedure, beginning with handing over from the Red Cross to the IDF troops. The military will formally salute them, and then the remains will be handed over to the National Center of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification. Only then will the families be allowed to bury their relatives in dignity.
The trauma continues beyond burial. Families of deceased hostages have a disrupted grieving process. As Dr. Einat Yahne, a rehabilitation psychologist, states, “Even among families where the dead were brought to be buried, there was a considerable lag time between receiving the notification and burying the deceased. Some families find it difficult to accept death from intelligence reports alone. In contrast, others who have had to bury their loved ones have heightened psychological distress due to the protracted ambiguity. Some families continue to struggle with excruciating uncertainty.”
Netanyahu’s words remind us that while Thursday will be a day of immense sorrow, it must also be a day of unity. As we lay our dead to rest, as we stand in solidarity with their families, let us commit ourselves once again to their memory, to our shared destiny, and to the unbreakable spirit of the Jewish people.