Funerals were held on Wednesday for slain hostages IDF Cpt. Daniel Perez and Guy Illouz, whose bodies were returned to Israel from the Gaza Strip two days earlier as part of a ceasefire agreement.
Perez was laid to rest at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, while Illouz was buried in his hometown of Ra’anana.
Perez, an immigrant from South Africa, was a tank commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion and was killed battling Hamas terrorists on October 7. His tank’s crew included Sgt. Tomer Leibovitz, Staff Sgt. Itay Chen and Matan Angrest.
Leibovitz, Perez and Chen were killed, and the bodies of Perez and Chen were taken captive to Gaza, while Angrest was abducted alive and finally released on Monday, the same day that Perez’s remains were returned.
Angrest, still weak from the abuse he suffered while held hostage, attended the funeral, pale and shaky but determined to pay tribute to his fallen commander.
“I didn’t prepare anything in advance,” Angrest said. “I can’t believe I even made it here.”
“This is the least I could do for Daniel and the whole crew,” Angrest said, adding that Perez “is a figure to be admired. My commander will always be my commander, until the day I die. You will go with me until my last day and even in the world to come.”
“We will keep fighting for Itay Chen, until he returns,” Angrest added. “I’m ready to go into Gaza right now to bring him back.”
Perez was declared dead by the IDF in March 2024, and his family decided at the time to hold a funeral, burying his blood-soaked clothing at the Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem. With the return of his remains, his family held a second funeral on Wednesday at the same location.
President Isaac Herzog paid tribute to Perez: “On that bitter, hasty morning two years ago, Captain Daniel Perez commanded ‘Team Perez’ — his Nahal Oz unit — with composure and extraordinary courage,” Herzog said.
The president commended the Perez family, saying their bravery and commitment to national unity became apparent throughout his meetings with them during the war, thanking them for “teaching us another lesson: that even in the deepest personal pain, it is possible to hold onto the faith of an entire nation.”
“We must not stop, must not tire, must not give up or accept a reality in which any of our fallen have not yet returned. The mission is not yet complete. We will continue to do everything until we bring everyone home to eternal rest,” Herzog said.
“Daniel, we miss you very much, your smile, your laugh, your honesty,” Yonatan Perez, Daniel’s brother, said in a report from the Walla news outlet. “Our family is not the same without you.”
Also at the funeral was the commander of the Armored Corps, Brig. Gen. Ohad Maor, who described Perez as an “exemplary officer” who “did not hesitate for a moment” to lead his tank’s crew in engaging the hordes of terrorists attacking the country.
In Ra’anana, Michel Illouz, the father of slain hostage Guy Illouz, whose body was also returned from Gaza on Monday, eulogized his eldest child after two years of rallying and protesting to bring him home.
“They kidnapped you — they murdered you — they kidnapped me too, and my very identity; they murdered my soul and my heart,” Illouz said. “I’ve been hollow, full of holes, ever since that senseless shooting by those vile terrorists, when they caught you, told you to turn around — and then simply fired two unnecessary bullets into your back.”
Illouz described driving to the Abu Kabir forensics institute on Wednesday morning to identify him and say goodbye.
“I touched you, tried to smell you, caressed every bone of yours, saw you, was alone with you — and yes, I felt with absolute certainty that it was you,” said Illouz. “Yes, I know, my Guychuk, that you’ve come back to us — back to your family’s embrace, to your friends, and to the millions of people whose hearts your story has touched.”
Illouz, 26, was wounded and kidnapped by Hamas terrorists while trying to flee the Nova music festival. He later succumbed to his wounds in a Gaza hospital, apparently due to lack of medical treatment.
Michel thanked former hostage Maya Regev, who was present at the funeral, for being with his son before his death, while they were both hospitalized in Gaza.
Regev recounted following her release from captivity in November 2023 that Illouz had been told by his captors that he was to receive a surprise, and that he had thought, and hoped, it would be sage tea. Instead, it was Regev, who was put in the bed next to him, in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital. Regev remained with him until his death, days later.
“My Guychuk, I love you so, so much,” said Illouz. “I will miss you every second, every minute of my life. Rest now, my sweet boy, rest after two years of journeying through worlds unknown to us.”
Mourners who participated in the funeral procession held Israeli flags, mirroring the coffin draped with a flag, as they walked behind the van in which it was transported.
“This is a hero of Israel who saved people at the Nova [music festival]!” said one man in the procession. “This is what heroes look like.”
“He was a musician — his music will live forever,” said another woman, weeping.
On Monday, along with the remains of Perez and Illouz, Hamas returned the bodies of slain hostages Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Nepalese national Bipin Joshi, 23. On Tuesday the bodies of slain hostages Uriel Baruch, Eitan Levy and Staff Sgt. Tamir Nimrodi were also returned to Israel.
Under the terms of a US-brokered ceasefire agreement, which went into effect on Friday, Hamas released the last 20 living hostages and is supposed to return the remains of another 28 it is still holding. As of Wednesday evening, Hamas had only returned nine bodies — two of which had yet to be identified — and claimed that it could not yet locate the others.