Funerals were held in Israel on Thursday for slain hostages Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi and Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash, after their bodies were returned this week by Hamas as part of a ceasefire deal.
Nimrodi, 18, was serving in the IDF Education Corps on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists abducted him from his military base and took him into Gaza alive. He is believed to have been killed shortly afterward, possibly in an IDF strike.
Atrash, 39, a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, was killed while battling Hamas terrorists in the area of Nahal Oz on October 7 and his body was seized.
Thousands of mourners turned out to Nimrodi’s funeral on Thursday at Kfar Saba’s military cemetery. There, the slain soldier’s family lamented a death that had been unconfirmed until hours before Tamir was returned from captivity, two years after he was killed.
No sign of life had been reported from Nimrodi since his abduction alongside two other soldiers on October 7, footage of which quickly circulated online. His loved ones had continued to hold out out hope that he was still alive.
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His father, Alon Nimrodi, told his son in a eulogy that he fought in every possible way to bring him home. He described Tamir’s powerful hugs, his rolling laughter with his sisters, his anxiety and the medication that he abandoned when he enlisted.
Family and friends of slain hostage Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi attend his funeral at Kfar Saba Military Cemetery on October 16, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Alon also shared feelings of guilt for pushing his son to enlist, telling him there was no draft-dodging in their family, and that he didn’t oppose his son’s placement on the Gaza Strip border.
“Forgive me, my firstborn, my beloved — forgive me!” he said.
The slain hostage’s father also recalled that “at the start of the war, they asked the families of the hostages to send recordings of their loved ones’ voices,” as part of efforts to locate them.
“We had trouble finding recordings of your voice, but your friends sent us a short video of you guys hanging out, where you say to them: ‘Shot? Shot?”
“So, we’re raising a shot glass in your honor and in your memory, with your open vodka that’s been sitting at home with me waiting for you to return,” he said, before drinking it.
Alon Nimrodi, right, prepares to take a shot of vodka as he eulogizes his son Tamir, being laid to rest in Kfar Saba a day after Hamas returned his body, on October 16, 2025. (Alon Gilboa/Hostages Forum)
Herut Nimrodi, the fallen soldier’s mother, said that he is being buried on the same day on the Jewish calendar that he was killed two years ago, the 24th of Tishrei.
“I received the news that shattered my heart, crushed every shred of hope, emptied me of the little strength I had left,” she said. “Your body has been identified and returned to Israel. You are here. You’ve come back.”
She noted that she was standing closer to him now than she had in the last two years, but without a hug, or healing, or peace. Nimrodi told her son to rest, knowing that his soul is finally free.
She promised him not to sink, to take care of herself and his sisters.
“We will meet again, face to face, someday in the future,” his mother said. “Me, with wrinkles and white hair, and you… you will forever remain my pure 18-year-old boy.”
Nimrodi’s sister, Amit, 14, said: “I miss you, I miss when we’d stay awake until the middle of the night and talk about everything; I miss your hugs when you’d return from the army, and I miss the nights when I’d sleep in your room with you. Now I sleep there alone every night.”
Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi (Courtesy)
Amit recalled the uncertainty of two years without knowing her brother’s fate: “We waited for a hug, but at the same time we waited for a knock on the door, and it didn’t matter how much we prepared ourselves for the worst — we weren’t ready for the moment they told us you weren’t coming back. It hurt so much, like a thousand stabs in the chest.”
“You fulfilled the role of a big brother perfectly. You always looked after me, every little thing, you’d prepare food for me in the middle of the night, you taught me everything I know,” she said.
Amit mentioned the note found inside her brother’s uniform, when he wrote that his goals were to help as many people as possible, to build a close circle of friends, and not to hurt anyone.
“To me, that is your will,” said Amit, “and I will do everything I can to fulfill it.”
Later in the day on Thursday, Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash’s funeral was held in Sa’wa, a Bedouin town near Beersheba, attended by his family and mourners from the community.
He is survived by his two wives, Amna and Ktimal, 13 children and 22 siblings, according to the IDF, as well as his parents.
On Thursday morning, the slain hostage’s cousin, Nimr, told the Walla news site: “We’re sad, but at least there’s a place to bury him, after two years,” adding: “He was a good man, a leader, always a listening ear for everybody, a special person.”
Mourners attend the funeral of IDF Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash, during his the funeral in his village of Sawa, a southern Bedouin community near Beersheba, on October 16, 2025. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
Muhammad’s brother Salem told Walla: “The State of Israel must do everything to return the rest of the fallen hostages,” adding: “The rest of the families whose loved ones are [fallen] hostages there — they’re like my brothers and sisters.”
Atrash, 39, served as a tracker in the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade, and was killed that day battling terrorists in the area of Nahal Oz, after which the terrorists took his body to Gaza.
At his funeral, Gaza Division chief Brig. Gen. Barak Hiram said the final confirmation of Atrash’s death “shattered the heart.”
“Today, as he has returned, we stand together with appreciation and pain,” added Hiram, according to the Haaretz daily. “Muhammad was a role model and a good example. He demonstrated courage and love. He was a bridge of mutual responsibility in this country.”
The IDF general told members of the Atrash family that they should “feel pride in him for his dedication and his bravery.”
Hostages Inbar Haiman (left) and Sgt. Maj. Muhammad el-Atrash, whose bodies were returned by Hamas late October 15, 2025. (Courtesy)
The family of Inbar Haiman, whose body was also returned Wednesday evening alongside that of Atrash, announced Thursday that her funeral would be held on Friday at the Yarkon Cemetery in Petah Tikva. They invited the public to wear pink in her honor and gather with Israeli flags along the route of the funeral procession.
Haiman, 27, a visual communications student from Haifa, was murdered by terrorists at the Nova music festival near Re’im on October 7, and her body was abducted to Gaza. Her death was officially declared by Israeli authorities in December 2023.
The final 20 living hostages were freed by Hamas on Monday as part of a US-brokered ceasefire that mandated the terror group to also hand over all 28 slain captives. As of Thursday afternoon, only nine bodies had been returned, and Hamas claimed it could not locate or access the other remains without assistance.