Hostages Asaf Hamami, Omer Neutra, Oz Daniel's remains identified, PMO confirms

The head of the IDF Southern Command, Maj.-Gen. Yaniv Asor, and the chief of the IDF’s Gaza Division, Brig.-Gen. Barak Hiram attended the honor guard, saluting the coffins bearing the dead as they passed by.

“The State of Israel bows its head in pain and in pride over their bravery. Asaf, Omer, and Oz are returning home today to their eternal resting place in the soil of the land they defended until the very end. I wish to send condolences and an embrace to their families,” Katz said.

Further, the entire security establishment is determined to bring all of the remaining hostages home as part of the state’s “moral and national duty to their families and to the entire people of Israel,” Katz continued.

Hamami, who was killed on October 7, is believed to be the first soldier to have declared that Israel was at war.

“People, we’re at war, we’re at war!” he announced shortly before his death.

Serving as the commander of the Gaza Division’s Southern Brigade, Hamami rushed to Kibbutz Nirim on the morning of October 7, where he was killed by terrorists who then kidnapped his body. He was the highest-ranking officer whose remains were taken into Gaza.

According to KAN News, when Hamami reached Nirim with fellow soldiers St.-Sgt. Tomer Yaakov Ahimas and Sgt. Kiril Brodsky, he immediately recognized the severity of the situation, and it was then that he broadcast over radio comms that the country was at war.

Both Ahimas and Brodsky were killed alongside their commander on October 7 in the battle for Nirim.

Israeli-American Neutra was also killed during Hamas’s October 7 massacre, and Hamas hijacked his body into the Gaza Strip. Following data collected by Israeli intelligence, a special military commission comprised of rabbis, scientists, and lawyers confirmed his death around 14 months later.

Neutra was a lone soldier from New York, serving as a tank platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Brigade. He had deferred his enrollment at Binghamton University to join the IDF with the nonprofit organization Garin Tzabar.

He was abducted along with members of his tank crew, including Cpl. Nimrod Cohen, who was released in October after more than 736 days of captivity.

Guns N’ Roses fan Daniel was killed while on duty in Nirim on the morning of October 7. In his final moments, Daniel attempted to steal a grenade from his captors, struggling against them, before he was shot to death.

Daniel was in one of the few tanks patrolling the Gaza border on the morning of Hamas’s invasion into southern Israel.

When the Nukhba Force began to cross the border, Daniel and his crew headed toward Gaza to try to ward it off. The tank was met with hundreds of armed terrorists, immobilized, and its driver was killed.

Footage soon emerged of three crew members, including Daniel, emerging from the tank only to be met by multiple terrorists who were surrounding it.