October 7 · Personal story
Itzik Elgarat
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Kibbutz Nir Oz
Current outcome
Returned for burial · February 27, 2025
His body was returned to Israel on February 27, 2025; he was buried at Kibbutz Nir Oz on March 3.
01
Before October 7
Itzik was a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz and worked as its maintenance man. His brother Dani described him as the person who fixed the gas, cots and everyday things residents needed repaired. He was a practical, inventive handyman. Itzik had two children living in Denmark and held Danish citizenship. He had married there, later divorced, and returned to Israel. His sister Rachel recalled that she, Itzik and their brother Eli joined Nir Oz in the 1970s after military service; she remembered an artistically gifted family and a brother who could repair almost anything.
02
October 7
On October 7, Itzik was in the safe room of his home in Nir Oz. Around 10:30 he called Dani, his brother in Tel Aviv, and said attackers had shot at the shelter door and he was bleeding. Dani tried to guide him through stopping the bleeding. The call ended amid shouting. Later, the family found the room empty and blood inside the house; Itzik was gone. A later account of their messages records Dani asking a neighbor to look for him and the reply that Itzik was not in the safe room. His phone’s movement toward Gaza first left the family unsure whether Itzik or only his phone had been taken.
03
Captivity
The army confirmed Itzik had been taken hostage two weeks after the attack. His brother Dani later said released hostages had seen Itzik alive in tunnels and spoken with him; one account said his injured hand had been treated. A sign of life reached the family in the months that followed. Itzik was eventually declared killed in captivity. His relatives continued to ask that he be brought home, keeping their attention on a person they knew as a father, brother and the one who fixed things around the kibbutz.
04
Return
Itzik’s body was returned to Israel on February 27, 2025, as part of the hostage deal. His family and the Nir Oz community received him back for burial. The return established his fate after months in which his relatives had shared reports from people released from captivity and pressed for him to come home.
05
Aftermath
Itzik was buried at Nir Oz on March 3, 2025. At the funeral, his sister Rachel spoke of the family’s artists and builders and remembered him as the kibbutz handyman who could improvise a repair. Dani recalled Itzik’s last words to him from the safe room: that this was the end. The family’s return to the kibbutz and burial there brought Itzik back to the community he had joined with his siblings decades earlier.