IDF Recovers Bodies of Two Israeli Soldiers
On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that soldiers conducting a military operation in the Gaza Strip had retrieved two bodies of hostages whom terror group Hamas captured on October 7th. During the rescue mission, three soldiers were lost.
A video seen on X, formerly Twitter, shows that the two hostages, Sgt. Ron Sherman and Cpl. Nik Beizer were alive when Hamas took them to Gaza. Before being captured, they worked at the IDF’s Gaza District Liasion and Coordination, just a few kilometers from the Erez border crossing. Their duties involved coordinating the passage of items into the Gaza Strip.
Beizer’s mom, Katy Beizer, continues to wonder why the Palestinian terrorists murdered her son while he has been working along with other soldiers in the base to ensure Gazans get the items they need to live. On the weekend of the Hamas deadly attack, Beizer was not supposed to be working. He was standing in for a friend who had personal issues to attend to.
Sherman’s Last Message to His Mother
Sherman, on the other hand, was speaking to his mom when Hamas attacked their base. His aunt Shalhev Kimchi said the mother-son phone call was cut off. Sherman then texted his mom, informing him of Hamas’ invasion. His last message was, “That is it Mom; they are here; it is over; I love you.” Kimchi was narrating Beizer’s story to the founders of Bring Them Home, a nonprofit organization seeking to get stories of hostages to the world.
Based on Sherman’s last text message, his mom assumed that her son had died. However, a few hours after the attack, Hamas shared a video of Beizer and Sherman, in which, according to Kimchi, they were “whole and healthy.”
IDF Retrieves Another Body
Besides the bodies of Sherman and Beizer, the IDF had earlier retrieved the body of a civilian hostage identified as Elia Toledano. The French-Israeli national (28) was kidnapped during a Supernova music festival in Re’im, where over 350 people were murdered.
Toledano’s body was recovered by the Military Intelligence Directorate’s Unit 504. On her X account, France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna wrote that her country was saddened by the news that Toledano had died in the hands of Hamas.
