An Israeli hostage, whom was believed to have perished in Hamas captivity due to a heart attack, was in fact brutally murdered according to the autopsy results.
By Rachel Avraham
Itzik Elgarat, an Israeli hostage whose body was returned last February in the framework of a hostage deal with Hamas, was tortured to death during interrogation in captivity, his brother Danny Elgarat revealed in a post on X/Twitter last Thursday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“Today, after my brother’s autopsy, the facts are clear: Itzik did not die of a heart attack. He was tortured to death,” his brother wrote. According to Danny, the autopsy found that Elgarat’s injuries, including multiple broken ribs, a fractured nose, and broken toes, were sustained by brutal physical abuse, the Jerusalem Post noted. “He was murdered with extreme cruelty,” Danny added.
Itzik Elgarat, 68, was in his Kibbutz Nir Oz home on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists attacked, the Times of Israel reported. According to the report, they shot him through his safe room door, injuring him, and took him captive. He was among 251 people abducted from Israel on October 7th, when thousands of terrorists engaged in a devastating invasion of southern Israel that also massacred 1,200 innocent men, women and children for the crime of being Jewish and no other reason.
It was previous thought that Itzik died of a heart attack while in Hamas custody. However, after the autopsy, it is clear that Hamas deliberately and callously murdered him. As his brother Danny Elgarat noted, “Itzik was tortured to death during an interrogation.”
According to the Times of Israel, Elgarat said that the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute, which conducted the autopsy, had been unable to “legally determine the definite cause of death,” but had assessed that the extent of his injuries was severe enough that they “could have caused his death.”
Roughly six weeks earlier, Danny had described the circumstances surrounding his brother’s disappearance, the Jerusalem Post reported. According to the report, he said that Hamas interrogators believed Elgarat was a pilot, in part due to an eagle tattoo on his arm, and took him away for questioning. He never returned.
Last week, five months after Itzik was buried in his home community of Kibbutz Nir Oz, Danny said he viewed footage of his brother recorded in Gaza before his death. He said Itzik appeared emaciated, frightened and confused, and pleaded in the video to return home to his family, Yedioth Achronot reported.
“I saw in his eyes that he knew he would probably never get out of there alive,” Elgarat said. “We waited so long to see him alive, but not after he was dead.”
According to Yedioth Achronot, Itzik Elgarat was identified on Feb. 27, 510 days after he was kidnapped to the Gaza Strip. His coffin was returned to Israel overnight as part of a hostage deal. Three other hostages — Ohad Yahalomi, Shlomo Mansour and Tzachi Idan — were also identified that day, Yedioth Achronot reported.
Photo from CNN-News18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VfMKdw–pk
