October 7 · Personal story
Yagev Buchstab
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
His home in Kibbutz Nirim
Current outcome
Returned for burial · August 20, 2024
His body was recovered, identified and brought to Israel for burial.
01
Life before October 7
Yagev Buchstab grew up in Kibbutz Nirim and became a musician, sound technician and maker of instruments, including electric guitars. He and Rimon Kirsht met at their regional school and shared years of friendship. In her later account, their friendship became romantic in 2020; they married on 12 March 2021 on the lawn behind his parents’ home in Nirim. Rimon described their home as full of music and animals. They kept dogs and cats, rescued animals that had been abused and cared for them at home. Yagev studied sound engineering, taught music and built a recording studio. He also grew hot peppers in the garden and shared a tandem bicycle with Rimon. His friends and family remembered a quiet, skilled maker whose work joined music, wood and the everyday life they built together in Nirim.
02
Abduction
On 6 October 2023, Nirim held its annual community festival. Yagev and Rimon stayed home, made dinner together and watched a film. At 6:29 the next morning, rocket sirens woke Rimon. The couple and their dogs sheltered in a bedroom because the safe-room door handle was broken. When attackers broke in, Rimon and Yagev tried to defend themselves and were taken from their home. KAN’s Nirim account names both as abducted from the kibbutz; Yagev’s mother later told the Knesset that he and Rimon were taken together.
03
Captivity
In an interview published in 2026, Rimon described being held with Yagev first above ground in Khan Younis and later in a cage inside a tunnel. He needed an inhaler, while she was recovering from injuries sustained during their abduction. They tried to remain together, holding hands, writing in a notebook and playing word games. Rimon said their captors objected to their closeness and that they eventually slept in shifts because his snoring provoked threats. In their notebook they made plans for life after Gaza: choosing a shared surname, trying to have a daughter and moving to a rural community. Those plans helped them imagine a future beyond captivity. When Rimon learned she would be released without him, she asked for other hostages to be freed instead. Before leaving, she asked Yarden Bibas to watch over Yagev. They said they loved each other as she was led away through the tunnel. Rimon returned to Israel on 28 November 2023; Yagev remained in Gaza. Rimon later said information given to the family placed his death on 14 February 2024, with definitive confirmation reaching her in July. An IDF investigation published on 4 December 2024 considered it highly probable that the deaths of Yagev and five other hostages were related to a nearby strike that February. It could not establish the precise cause of death or timing of gunfire with complete certainty.
04
Return
The IDF reported that Yagev’s body was recovered from an underground tunnel near Khan Younis on 20 August 2024. After forensic identification, he was brought to Israel for burial, and his wife and family were notified.
05
Aftermath
Yagev was buried in Kibbutz Nirim on 21 August 2024. Rimon later returned to a rural home with the dogs and cats they had raised together. Their Nirim years are remembered through the music and instruments he made, their rescued animals and the home they shared.