The IDF revealed on Wednesday, that Sahar Baruch who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since his abduction on October 7, was killed in an extraction attempt carried out by elite IDF troops earlier this month.
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Baruch, 25 was taken from his home in Kibbutz Be'eri during the Hamas massacre. His brother Idan and his grandmother Geula Bachar were murdered by the terrorists during their murderous rampage.
His family was told of his death by the IDF on December 9 hours after the failed effort to free him but was only on Wednesday, briefed about the circumstances surrounding his death. The military said it was unable to determine whether he was killed by his captors or in the cross fire.
Sahar who was survived by his parents and two brothers, had returned from his months-long travel in South America just a month before October 7 and had planned to begin his studies in the Electric Engineering department at the Ben Gurion University.
Sahar's aunt Merav Barkai said that he and Idan were home when the massacre began. They blocked the door to the family home with a cupboard but the terrorists hurled grenades into their shelter, wounding Idan.
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Destruction caused by the Hamas massacre at Kibbutz Be'eri
(Photo: Abir Sultan / EPA)
When the house began to burn, Idan was first to escape through the window and was hot dead. Sahar's fate was unknown until he appeared on a video clip released by Hamas in its psychological warfare against Israeli families. After he was seen alive, the clip showed his bloody, dead body and included the claim that he was killed by the IDF.