After 503 days of waiting, the Lifshitz family was notified that the body of Oded Lifshitz had been positively identified. Oded, who was taken hostage on October 7, 2023, was returned to Israel on Thursday.
The family issued a statement filled with grief: “With profound sadness, we received the official confirmation that the body of our beloved Oded has been identified. After 503 excruciating days of uncertainty, the ordeal has come to an end. We had hoped and prayed so intensely for a different result.”
They continued, “Now, we are left to mourn the loss of our husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, who has been absent from our lives since October 7. Our journey of healing begins now, but it will not be complete until every hostage is brought home.”
The Prime Minister’s Office later released a statement explaining that after the National Institute of Forensic Medicine and Israel Police completed the identification, representatives from the IDF informed the Lifshitz family that Oded had been killed while in the custody of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and that his body had been returned to Israel for burial.
Oded, 84, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was captured alongside his wife, Yocheved. Yocheved was released from captivity on October 23, 2023, for “humanitarian reasons,” and she later shared that they had been held in separate locations during their time in captivity.
Oded was a dedicated journalist and activist, known for his work with Al Hamishmar and Haaretz newspapers. He served in the IDF’s Nahal Brigade and participated in multiple wars, including the Six-Day War, the War of Attrition, the Yom Kippur War, and the First Lebanon War.
{Matzav.com}