The IDF announced on Sunday evening that abducted Captain Daniel Perez, 22, from Yad Binyamin, was killed in the fighting on October 7 and his body has been held in the Gaza Strip ever since.
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Daniel Perez, 22, from Yad Binyamin, was killed in the fighting on October 7 and his body has been held in the Gaza Strip ever since
(Photo: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Perez was an officer with the rank of captain and commanded a tank in Nahal Oz when the deadly surprise attack by Hamas began 163 days ago.
As in other recently announced cases, his death was determined after examination of various findings and reliable information. These findings allowed the chief military rabbi to determine his death and allow Perez to be buried according to Jewish law, though his body remains held in Gaza.
"The IDF shares in the family's grief and will continue to support them," the IDF said in the announcement.
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The difficult message was delivered to the family only a day after the rally in Hostages' Square in Tel Aviv - where his father, Rabbi Doron Perez, broke down and cried during a prayer he offered for the peace of the soldiers and the kidnapped. Perez serves as the chairman of the global Mizrahi movement, and just a few days ago he participated in a statement by the headquarters of the families of the hostages, in which he said that he knew nothing about the fate of his son.
"Our son enlisted less than 10 years ago, volunteered for the tank corps, and that day he did everything he could just to protect the homeland and save as many people as possible. We have known nothing about our son for almost 160 days, except that he was wounded," he said at the time. The father stated in the same statement that his son fought together with Staff Sergeant Itay Hen, who was also kidnapped to Gaza and only last week the IDF announced that he too fell in the fighting on October 7 and his body has been kept in Gaza ever since.
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Daniel Perez's brother Yonatan was injured in battle on October 7, and got married just days later
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
Daniel's brother, Yonathan, also fought in the battles in the Gaza border communities on October 7. Yonatan, an officer in the paratroopers, was wounded in the leg during one of the battles in Nahal Oz, and a few days later he got while his brother was still listed as missing. In an interview Rabbi Perez gave to Ynet at the time, he discussed the decision to hold the wedding despite the worry about Daniel, which has now become true.
The father said that there was a deep closeness between the brothers, who immigrated to Israel as teenagers from South Africa.
"He kept asking us what we thought, how a brother could get married when his brother was missing. When I stood next to him under the canopy, he told me: 'I can't believe that Daniel is not here. I don't believe it.' That's the first thing he said to me. But we felt it was the right thing, to hold the wedding despite everything. Rabbi Mertzbach talked about Daniel being missing, and we read a chapter of Psalms together. It was a painful and sad moment, we cried, and then we dried our faces and we entered into joy."