Remains of hostages Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy identified

The families of soldiers Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and civilian Eitan Levy announced on Wednesday morning that their bodies were among the four returned by Hamas overnight.

“We sat shiva but couldn’t bury him. Now, at last, we can,” the Baruch family said in a statement.

“After two years of agonising uncertainty, full of hope and desire for a different ending, we received the difficult news of the identification of our beloved Tamir,” the Nimrodi family said. “Tamir was brutally kidnapped from his base and murdered in Hamas captivity. We are in moments of pain and gathering, but we will not abandon the families of the kidnapped and the kidnapped until the last kidnapped is released.”

Officials at the National Institute of Forensics cautioned that the ongoing identification process could take hours or more than one day, depending on the complexity of each case. Unlike Monday’s handover, Hamas did not specify the names of the dead. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the centre is investigating the possibility that the fourth body is not a hostage.

Baruch, 35, was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. He and his friend Michel Yoav fled the attack in Baruch’s car but were ambushed by terrorists at the Mefalsim Junction, who opened fire. Videos later showed Michel dead in the car and Uriel lying nearby, but his fate remained uncertain. In March 2024, new intelligence confirmed Uriel had been killed on October 7 and his body held in Gaza.

Nimrodi, 19, served in an army unit coordinating activities between Israel and international organisations active in Gaza. He was stationed near the Erez Crossing and was taken hostage in the morning of Hamas’ attack. Video footage showed him with fellow soldiers *ik Baizer*and Ron Sherman, forced by terrorists toward their base gate in shorts and T-shirts before being taken into Gaza.

A cab driver from Bat Yam, Levy 53, vanished on October 7, 2023, after finishing a fare to Kibbutz Be’eri. During a call to his son, Shahar, about the Hamas rockets, Shahar heard gunfire and Arabic shouting before the line went silent. For more than 40 days, Levy was listed as missing until officials confirmed he had been taken hostage. Sixty-two days later, the IDF informed his family that he was believed to have been killed while in captivity in Gaza.

In February, a body purporting to be Shiri Bibas was returned to Israel along with her two children, but a forensic examination determined that the body was a Palestinian. Terrorists murdered the sons, Ariel and Kfir, with their bare hands, then mutilated the bodies to make it look like they were killed in an airstrike. Hamas released Shiri’s remains the next day.

It is believed Hamas will hand over more remains on Wednesday.

Around 1,200 people were killed that day, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were abducted. The bodies of at least 22 more hostages remain in Gaza.