October 7 · Personal story
Ori Danino
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Nova music festival near Re’im
Current outcome
Returned for burial · August 31, 2024
Ori’s body was returned to Israel on 31 August 2024.
01
Jerusalem, coffee and music
Ori Danino grew up in Jerusalem, the eldest of five children in an ultra-Orthodox family. He attended a yeshiva high school in Afula and later chose a less religious way of life. He enlisted in the army in 2018, first serving in the C4I Corps, then Givati, before serving as a communications NCO with the Paratroopers Brigade. His family remembered his love of coffee, nature, surfing, music and cooking. He hoped to study electrical engineering, and he and his partner Liel were looking for an apartment together. His father described Ori as someone who noticed other people before himself.
02
He turned back at Nova
On 7 October 2023, Ori was at Nova during a weekend break from army service. When the attack began, he and his friend Tomer fled toward their cars and initially got away. Ori then turned back. He asked Tomer for the phone numbers of Maya and Itay Regev and Omer Shem Tov, people he had met only hours earlier, and went to find them. Their car was intercepted as they tried to leave; all four were taken hostage. Shem Tov later wrote that he was alive because Ori returned for them.
03
Captivity
In a September 2025 interview, former hostage Or Levy said he spent time in a tunnel with Ori, Hersh Goldberg-Polin and Almog Sarusi; they shared stories, cried and laughed. Levy recalled that before the men were led away, Ori smiled and said, “See you soon.” Ori was killed in captivity on 29 August 2024.
04
Body returned on 31 August
Ori died in captivity on 29 August 2024. His body was returned to Israel on 31 August. His funeral was held on 1 September at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
05
A father’s memory
Ori’s father, Rabbi Elhanan Danino, said the decision to turn back reflected the son he knew: someone who gave of himself and saw other people first. Maya and Itay Regev were released in November 2023; Omer Shem Tov returned in February 2025. After his return, Shem Tov wrote: “Ori, it’s because of you that I’m here.” At Ori’s funeral, loved ones remembered his warmth and his plans for a shared home with Liel. The stories of those he went back for became part of the public memory of his final act.