Zehava Shaul, who led a decade-long campaign to recover the remains of her son, IDF soldier Oron Shaul, from Hamas captivity in Gaza, has died after a months-long battle with a serious illness, her family said. She was 71.
Shaul will be buried at noon Sunday at the cemetery in Poria Illit, near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. She will be laid to rest alongside her husband, Herzl, and near the grave of Oron, whose remains were recovered from Gaza and buried in Israel in January 2025, more than 10 years after he was killed in combat.
“I have completed my life’s mission,” Shaul told relatives several weeks before her death.
Her family asked the public to respect its privacy.
“Zehava was a woman of faith, determination and love for others,” the family said in a statement. “For more than a decade, she carried on her shoulders, with inspiring strength, the uncompromising struggle to bring her son Oron home for burial in Israel.”
“Her devotion, strength and boundless love touched many hearts and made her a symbol of perseverance, hope and great love,” the family added. “We accompany our mother on her final journey with great pain, but also with gratitude for the path she left behind for us.”
President Isaac Herzog described Shaul as a courageous, determined and inspiring mother who dedicated more than a decade to securing her son’s return for burial.
“Michal and I had the privilege of accompanying Zehava and the Shaul family over the years, until the painful and shattering moment when Oron was brought to his eternal rest after more than 10 years of waiting, pain and longing,” Herzog said, referring to his wife.
Zehava Shaul stands over the coffin of her son Oron
(Photo: Gil Nechushtan)
“At that moment, we also thought of Herzl, who did not live to see his son return to the soil of his homeland,” he added. “Zehava carried that pain on her shoulders with unimaginable courage and never stopped believing, fighting and loving.”
Herzog offered condolences to Shaul’s surviving sons, Ofek and Aviram, and to the rest of the family.
Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul was killed on July 20, 2014, during fighting in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah in the 2014 Gaza war, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. The armored personnel carrier in which he was traveling was struck by Hamas fire, and the terrorist group seized his remains and held them in Gaza for more than a decade.
In August 2014, then-defense minister Moshe Yaalon informed Shaul’s family that Israel knew Hamas was holding his body and was working to recover it.
The family continued its public campaign for his return over the following years as defense officials gathered intelligence and sought to determine where the remains were being held.
Those efforts intensified after Israeli forces entered Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
Oron Shaul
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
In January 2025, intelligence led the IDF and Shin Bet security agency to launch a covert operation to recover Shaul’s remains, according to Israeli accounts of the mission.
Israeli forces arrested a Hamas member who had guarded the remains for years, and his interrogation revealed their precise location, officials said. A Palestinian operative working with Israel then located the facility and retrieved the body in an operation planned to avoid endangering living hostages being held in Gaza City at the time.
The recovery mission began overnight on Jan. 18-19, 2025, hours before a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect. It involved the IDF and Shin Bet, including the navy’s elite Shayetet 13 commando unit, forces from the military’s 162nd Division and military intelligence units.
After the remains were returned to Israel, they were formally identified at the national forensic institute and the family was notified, bringing its campaign of more than a decade to an end.
Thousands attended Oron Shaul’s funeral on Jan. 20, 2025, at the Poria Illit cemetery, where he was buried near his father. His mother will now be laid to rest beside them.