The family of Arie (Zalman) Zalmanowicz, one of the founders of Kibbutz Nir Oz, expressed both sorrow and muted relief on Wednesday after his body was returned to Israel from the Gaza Strip, where he was held by Hamas terrorists since Oct. 7.
“Dad has been brought back. Thirteen murdered hostages are still in Gaza, and their families are waiting. We stand with them until the very last hostage is returned,” his son Boaz Zalmanowicz wrote in a post Wednesday morning, just hours after the Israeli government confirmed his father’s return.
Speaking later in an interview with ynet, Zalmanowicz described his feelings as a mix of disbelief and subdued comfort. “This morning is full of clichés, but there’s really no other way to describe how it feels,” he said. “We fought together with the other hostage families and with the entire public to bring Dad home. Last night we were informed that he was returned as part of the agreement. It’s hard to define what we feel, but there’s no doubt it’s a certain kind of relief.”
Two months after the war began, Kibbutz Nir Oz announced that Arie Zalmanowicz, 86, who was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and taken to Gaza on Oct. 7, had been murdered. Zalmanowicz was one of the kibbutz’s founders, a father of two and grandfather of five.
Boaz said that on Tuesday night the family was notified by an IDF officer that his father’s body had been recovered. “We’ve known for a long time that he was gone,” he said. “We know he was murdered in mid-November, but we’ve been waiting to bring him back to the fields.”
Zalmanowicz described his father as a man who embodied the pioneering spirit of Israel’s early years. “He was a city boy from Haifa who went to work in the fields and lived his Zionism through labor, not through talk,” he said. “That was the essence of his life’s work, of his being. Founding Nir Oz and working the land were part of him. You can’t separate those things from who he was—they were one and the same.”
Regarding the kibbutz’s ongoing recovery, Boaz said he believed his father would have viewed the rebuilding efforts as a continuation of his life’s mission. “If he could see what is beginning now, he would experience it as the continuation of his work,” he said.
Zalmanowicz emphasized that despite the return of his father’s body, the struggle for the remaining hostages is far from over. “We know the suffering the families are going through, and we stand with them—with the 13 families who have not yet been able to bring their loved ones home,” he said. “It wouldn’t be right to stop now, and it’s not just about fairness—it’s about shared destiny. We will continue to do everything we can and raise our voices for the return of the 13 murdered hostages who are still being held. Our beloved Amiram Cooper is the last from Nir Oz still in captivity, and of course there are others as well.”
He called the prolonged captivity of the hostages “a bleeding wound that must be closed by bringing back the remaining murdered hostages.” He added: “After that, our leadership must do some soul-searching about its lack of leadership and empathy toward the hostage families. I call on ourselves, the public, and the entire nation to continue fighting for the 13 remaining hostages.”
Boaz had previously shared that Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, an Israeli Arab hostage rescued from southern Gaza after 326 days in captivity, and other freed hostages told the family that his father had been held with them. “They told us he had been hit in the head; we saw that in the pictures too,” Boaz said. “In a new video we were recently shown, a terrorist films Dad from about half a meter away. It’s not a long clip, but you can see Dad trying to push him away with his hand. It’s a cruel reminder of what he went through there—you can see it in his eyes, you can see the blood. They took him to a hospital, where he died in great agony.”
The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed overnight that the two murdered hostages whose bodies were returned from Gaza were Arie (Zalman) Zalmanowicz and Tamir Adar. Thirteen murdered hostages remain in captivity.
“The government of Israel shares in the deep sorrow of the Zalmanowicz and Adar families and of all the families of the murdered hostages,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. “Hamas must fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the agreement’s implementation. We will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until all the murdered hostages are brought home—every last one of them.”