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Military representatives on Wednesday morning notified the families of three Israeli hostages that the bodies of their loved ones were returned to Israel by Hamas the night prior, including one whose death had not been confirmed by Israel until now. A fourth body transferred to Israel by the terror group belonged to an unidentified Palestinian, according to Israeli authorities.
The families of Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi, 18, Uriel Baruch, 35 and Eitan Levy, 53, were notified that their bodies had been returned and had been identified at the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
The four bodies handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross on Tuesday night in Gaza City, then transferred to the Israeli military, had not been identified by the terror group.
The handover happened after Israel accused Hamas of violating the recently implemented ceasefire by withholding the bodies of deceased hostages. Hamas released the final 20 living hostages on Monday, as well as the bodies of four dead captives. Under the terms of the ceasefire, all 28 deceased captives were supposed to be returned by Monday at noon, though there was leeway for Hamas to instead transfer all information it had on any of the 28 it did not hold or could not locate.
Hamas returned only four bodies on Monday. After returning the remains of the three captives on Tuesday, the terror group had yet to return the bodies of 21 dead hostages.
“The Government of Israel shares in the profound grief of the Baruch, Nimrodi and Levy families, and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” said the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office warned that Hamas “is required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and to return [the remaining bodies] as part of the agreement’s implementation.”
“We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we bring back all of the fallen hostages, every single one of them,” vowed the PMO.
Vehicles transporting four bodies handed over following a ceasefire-hostage release deal arrive at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, in Tel Aviv, on October 15, 2025. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
Following the completion of examinations at Abu Kabir, the IDF said Wednesday that the fourth body returned by Hamas did not belong to any of the hostages. The body was assessed to belong to a Palestinian.
“Hamas is required to make all necessary efforts to return the deceased hostages,” the IDF added.
Later Wednesday, a senior source in the “resistance,” the term used for terror groups in Gaza led by Hamas, told Al Jazeera that “the body the enemy claims does not belong to an Israeli is that of a soldier who was captured in a resistance operation.”
The source claimed that the incident took place in May 2024 in the Jabaliya refugee camp, during which an IDF soldier was ostensibly killed and captured.
At the time, the military swiftly denied Hamas’s claim that it had captured a soldier in Jabalia, saying: “The IDF clarifies that there is no incident of a soldier’s kidnapping.”
The terror group had aired a video showing a bloodied person being dragged along the ground in a tunnel, and published images of military gear and submachine guns which are not used by the Israeli military.
Palestinian media at the time identified the man in the video as Khalil Dawas, a Palestinian from the West Bank’s Aqabat Jabr camp, near Jericho.
Update regarding the alleged ambush of special forces in a tunnel in Jabaliya on May 25th, 2024:
Two separate reports have emerged regarding the alleged identity of the man in the video: Khalil Dawas, a Palestinian from Aqabat Jabr, Jericho.
What does this potentially mean? https://t.co/eIH3g13uHf pic.twitter.com/0fAU4lElC7— Tal Hagin (@talhagin) June 21, 2024
Earlier this year, Hamas gave Israel a body that it said belonged to slain hostage Shiri Bibas, which was soon identified as a Palestinian woman. Bibas’s remains were later handed over to Israel, and the body of the Palestinian woman was returned to Gaza.
Hamas has informed the mediators that it will transfer four more bodies of deceased hostages to Israel on Wednesday, a Middle Eastern diplomat and a second source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The agreement stipulated that Hamas return all 48 hostages, living and dead, within 72 hours of the deal taking effect, a period that began on Friday. But the possibility arose that there would be a delay in locating the dead hostages’ bodies in the war-torn Strip.
Now, disputes reminiscent of past ceasefires are resurfacing, as small groups of deceased hostages are handed over in phases amid fears that the agreement could collapse.
Israel has claimed Hamas is breaking the deal by delaying the return of the dead captives. And families of those held in Gaza have fumed that Israeli celebrations are premature, given that the terrorists who perpetrated the October 7, 2023, attack that launched the war are still holding hostages.
Tamir Nimrodi
Nimrodi — who served as an Education Corps noncommissioned officer at the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories’ Coordination and Liaison Administration to the Gaza Strip — was one of two hostages whose fates were unknown until their bodies were returned to Israel.
Tamir Nimrodi, center, taken hostage from his army base on October 7, 2023, with his two younger sisters, Mika, left and Amit (Courtesy)
He was seen alive alongside his friends, Sgt. Ron Sherman and Cpl. Nik Beizer, in a video of his abduction from his base near the Erez Crossing, but he was not confirmed dead by the IDF until his body was identified on Wednesday morning.
“After two years of torturous but hopeful uncertainty, we received the difficult news of our beloved Tamir’s identification,” his family members said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that they were “in pain, but we will not for one moment abandon the families of the hostages until the return of the last hostage.”
“This is the moment that we so feared, the moment I refused to believe would come,” Tamir’s father, Alon Nimrodi, told Channel 12 news in an interview on Wednesday.
“The whole time, I said if there was a 0.01% chance, I would burn the world for Tamir to come home alive and well, but unfortunately, we got the news this morning.”
Asked whether there was any relief in the definitive news of his son’s fate, Alon said they were feeling a terrible relief at having received Tamir’s body.
Alon Nimrodi, the father of captive Tamir Nimrodi, addressing the crowd at a protest for the hostages at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, September 20, 2025. (Lior Rotstein / Hostages and Missing Families Forum)
In contradicting statements, Nimrodi’s family said that Tamir was “murdered in Hamas captivity,” but the Hostages and Missing Families Forum — a group representing the families of most of the hostages — said he had been killed in an IDF airstrike during the war in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF said it assessed that Nimrodi was killed in captivity at the start of the war. “Final conclusions will be formulated after the completion of the examination of the circumstances of death” at Abu Kabir, the military said.
“Tamir Nimrodi had completed 10 months of his military service before he was abducted to Gaza,” the Forum wrote in a statement on Wednesday. “During his service, he felt like he had found his purpose and had interviewed for officer training only a week before he was taken hostage. His friends and family say he was a social and caring man. Tamir was not supposed to be on base on October 7 but volunteered to stay for that weekend [which coincided with Simchat Torah] so his friends could celebrate the holiday at home with their families.”
Security forces pay their respects as the convoy carrying four bodies, three of them hostages, arrives at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, on October 15, 2025. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The forum said that soon after his abduction, a note penned by Tamir was found in his room, reading, “Help as many people as possible, create a close social circle and don’t hurt anyone.”
He is survived by his parents, Cherut and Alon, and sisters Amit and Mika.
Tamir’s funeral will take place on Thursday at 1 p.m. at the military cemetery in Kfar Saba, and Alon asked that “every person whom Tamir touched a little come and pay final respects to my hero.”
Uriel Baruch
Baruch, according to the IDF’s intelligence, was murdered by Hamas on October 7, 2023, near the border community of Mefalsim after fleeing the Nova music festival near Re’im, and his body was abducted to Gaza.
Baruch attended the Nova festival with his friend, Michel Yoav, who was seen shot dead in a video from the attack, but Baruch’s fate was unclear as he could be seen lying on the ground nearby in the footage.
Uriel Baruch, who was murdered and taken hostage from the Nova desert rave by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, and whose body was returned on October 14, 2025. (Courtesy)
But in March of last year, the IDF notified the family that it had intelligence that Baruch had been murdered during the attack and his body had been taken to Gaza. The family sat shiva, the weeklong mourning period, but did not hold a funeral.
He is survived by his wife Racheli; sons, Shalev, 10, and Ofek, 6; parents, Naomi and Amir; and three brothers, Roee, Idan and Ohad.
Baruch’s family said a memorial ceremony that had been planned before his body was returned would still be held at 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening and that details of his burial would be announced later.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said his family and friends described him as “a happy man who loved life and travel.”
“He was always surrounded by friends. He would help anyone who was in distress, and his motto was ‘Live like there’s no tomorrow,’” the forum added.
“Uriel, my beloved brother, our heart has returned,” Idan wrote on Instagram following the announcement of his identification.
Uriel’s sister-in-law, Rikki Baruch, told Channel 12 News on Wednesday morning that the family had complex emotions.
“It’s closure, [but there’s] very deep grief,” she said. “Everything is rising to the surface, all the difficult emotions from October 7 are getting stronger. It’s not what we wished for, but there’s closure and peace. Now, we can start thinking of rehabilitating the family and the children.”
She added that Uriel’s kids were in therapy, and she didn’t know what their exact emotional state was.
“They’re surrounded by professionals who explain the complicated situation to them and that it has come to a certain ending.”
Eitan Levy
Levy, a cab driver, was abducted after dropping a passenger off in Kibbutz Be’eri on the morning of October 7, 2023. While driving away from the kibbutz, he ran into a Hamas ambush near Mefalsim and was murdered and abducted.
It took 40 days for the family to receive confirmation that he was being held captive in Gaza, and in December of 2023, they were told that he had been murdered before being taken to Gaza.
Eitan Levy (Courtesy)
In August 2024, his family agreed to release graphic footage of Levy’s body being driven through the streets of Gaza and being kicked and stomped on by Gazans.
After his death was confirmed, Eitan’s family held a memorial service and sat shiva, the weeklong mourning period, but was not able to hold a funeral.
He is survived by his son Shahar, his fiancée Shir, and his sister Sigi.
Levy also acted as a father figure to the three children his ex-wife, Aviva, had with her wife, Chen: Sunny, River and Reef.
Eitan and Aviva wed in 1999 and Shahar was born in 2001. When he was seven, the couple divorced, and several years later, Aviva married Chen and they had three children. Eitan was an integral part of the family, they said, stopping by almost every morning after a night shift driving his cab and having Friday night dinner together every weekend.
The forum said Levy’s friends and family described him as “a warm and loving family man who always took care of those around him before himself. He was a responsible man who was dedicated to every place he came to and everyone talked about his big heart. His biggest loves were his only son, Shahar, and his two dogs.”
His son, Shahar, told Laisha magazine that his father “was very family-oriented and very happy. He didn’t have a simple life, but even when he had sad moments, he didn’t let us feel them. Anytime he would come over — and he would come to us a lot — it was joyous.”
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