According to recent reports in the media, Shlomo Mantzur, the oldest hostage in Hamas captivity, was murdered on October 7 and his body has been held by Hamas in Gaza ever since.
By Rachel Avraham
According to recent reports in the media, Shlomo Mantzur, the oldest hostage in Hamas captivity, was murdered on October 7 and his body has been held by Hamas in Gaza ever since. The Times of Israel reported that it was unclear if he was murdered in Kibbutz Kissufim en route to Gaza or in the Strip itself that day. According to the report, his death was declared by a panel of health experts and members of the rabbinate, following intelligence the IDF says it obtained in recent months.
This March, Mantzur would have turned 87 years old. For over 70 years, Mantzur lived in Kibbutz Kisufim in southern Israel. According to his wife Mazal, he was abducted from his home in his pajamas, while she managed to escape and hide with neighbors. Israel Hayom reported that the terrorists who infiltrated Kibbutz Kisufim murdered at least 12 of his fellow kibbutz members and six Thai workers on October 7. Now Mantzur has been added to the list of fatalities. Mantzur is survived by his wife, five children and twelve grandchildren.
“This is one of the most difficult days in the history of our kibbutz,” Kissufim said in a statement. “Shlomo was much more than a community member to us — he was a father, a grandfather, a true friend and the beating heart of Kissufim.”
The kibbutz statement added that “his smile, modesty and human warmth were an inspiration to us all. Our hearts are so broken that we were unable to bring him back to us alive. The entire community grieves his loss and is united in grief and pain.”
The Mantzur family told Israel Hayom: “We received the devastating news from IDF representatives about the murder of our beloved and cherished Shlomo. He was the cornerstone of our entire family. A man of high moral values and principles, a humanitarian who always helped others wholeheartedly. We call on decision-makers to make a brave and principled decision to bring all hostages home immediately – the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial in their homeland.”
Israel Hayom reported that as a child, Mantzur survived the Farhud Pogrom in Iraq. The Farhud Pogrom took place during a Nazi-inspired coup in Iraq during the Second World War. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, “During the two days of violence, rioters murdered between 150 and 180 Jews, injured 600 others, and raped an undetermined number of women. They also looted some 1,500 stores and homes. The community leaders estimated that about 2,500 families—15 percent of the Jewish community in Baghdad—suffered directly from the pogrom. According to the official report of the commission investigating the incident, 128 Jews were killed, 210 were injured, and over 1,500 businesses and homes were damaged.”
During the Farhud, the Arab rioters committed horrendous atrocities, including cutting open the bellies of pregnant women, cutting off the hands and feet of babies in order to remove gold jewelry, and horrific acts of rape and abduction of young Jewish women, who were never heard from or seen again. After the Farhud, many Jews felt that they had no future in Iraq, leading many to immigrate to Israel. As the National Library of Israel noted, a member of Kibbutz Be’eri related: “We made Aliyah from Iraq to Israel so that Arabs wouldn’t be able to enter Jewish homes and murder us.” Little did they comprehend that their grandchildren would face a Farhud of their own over 80 years later.
Mantzur’s niece previously recounted: “He witnessed with his own eyes the abuse of Muslim rioters against his family and acquaintances. Horrors that the mind refuses to process and the hand refuses to write. He immigrated to Israel convinced that no harm would come to him. He initially lived in a shack, and at age 15 arrived at Kibbutz Kisufim, believing the state would do everything to protect him.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, Mantzur was among the founders of the kibbutz. Known as a dedicated worker, the Jerusalem Post noted that he worked in its chicken coop and eyewear factory. As a hobby, he learned carpentry and jewelry making, the Jerusalem Post added. He believed that his future was assured in Israel and he felt safe here. Then, out of nowhere, on October 7, 2023, in the framework of a massacre that has many parallels to the Farhud, Hamas abducted Mantzur from his home in his pajamas, in his own car, forcefully separating him from his wife, children and grandchildren, and then mercilessly murdered him after undergoing such a heroic ordeal, only to be robbed of a proper burial by his family in Israel.
JTA reported that the announcement comes during a ceasefire in which 33 hostages, including the body of Mantzur, are to be released. After the ceasefire began, Hamas said eight of the 33 hostages on the agreed-upon list were dead but did not specify which ones, JTA noted. According to the report, sixteen living hostages from list, as well as five Thai hostages who were not on the list, have been released since the ceasefire’s start in January. U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced that “all hell is going to break out” if the remaining 76 hostages, of whom about 30 are thought to be alive, are not released by Saturday.
