Hostage Announced Dead After 2-Month Captivity

By Yoni Weiss

Kibbutz Be’eri announced that 25-year-old Sahar Baruch, Hy”d, who was abducted alive to the Gaza Strip by Hamas terrorists on Simchas Torah, was murdered in captivity.

His brother, Idan, Hy”d, was murdered in the attack as the two tried to escape their home, which was torched by terrorists. Their grandmother, Geula Bachar, Hy”d, was also killed in the attack.

Baruch’s aunt, Meirav Barkai, said that on the morning of Simchas Torah, he and his brother Idan were at their mother’s house in Be’eri, and entered the safe room when rocket sirens and gunfire were heard, “but they couldn’t lock the door so they pushed a closet to block the entrance. The terrorists threw three grenades into the safe room, Idan was wounded, and Sahar treated his wounds.”

According to her, “When the house started burning down, they decided to jump out. Idan jumped first, and he was shot and killed shortly afterward. Sahar stayed behind.”

The Abducted and Missing Families Forum said, “We will demand the return of his body as part of any future hostage release deal. We won’t stop until all captives return home.”

Baruch had been listed as missing since his family did not know whether he was taken dead or alive.

On Friday, Hamas released a video where he appears to be talking, and later his body was seen covered in blood, claiming that he was “killed” during an IDF operation to release the captives in Gaza.