- Cooper, an economist and poet, was a founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz; Baruch was an engineering student; both were kidnapped from their border kibbutzim in the October 7 onslaught, killed in Gaza
Hamas on Thursday returned to Israel the remains of two deceased hostages, Amiram Cooper, 84, and Sahar Baruch, 25, with Israeli authorities confirming their identities within hours.
Military representatives notified their families of the development, following the completion of identification efforts by forensic experts.
Cooper was abducted by Hamas terrorists from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, and was assessed by the IDF to have been murdered in captivity in February 2024. The IDF confirmed his death in June 2024.
Baruch was also kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from Kibbutz Be’eri during the onslaught. He was killed during a failed IDF hostage rescue mission in December 2023, according to the military.
The IDF said that “final conclusions” into the circumstances of their deaths would be made upon the completion of examinations at the Abu Kabir forensic institute in Tel Aviv.
It marked the first time in nine days that Hamas handed over bodies of deceased hostages. Israel has said that the terror group is dragging its feet on the requirement that it return all of the captives, as agreed in the ceasefire that came into place on October 10. The remains of 11 deceased hostages are still being held in Gaza.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum expressed hope in a statement that, “amid the grief and the understanding that their hearts will never be whole again,” the return of the two bodies will bring “some measure of comfort” to their families that have lived “in unbearable uncertainty and doubt for over two years.”
The identities of Cooper and Baruch were confirmed after Hamas handed over two caskets to the Red Cross on Thursday afternoon, without specifying the names of the hostages that were supposed to be inside. Hamas has previously transferred remains to Israel that did not belong to deceased hostages.
After collecting the caskets in central Gaza, the Red Cross handed them over to IDF troops inside the Strip. The military inspected the caskets and draped them in Israeli flags. A small ceremony led by a military rabbi was then held.
The caskets were subsequently transferred to Israel, where police escorted them to Abu Kabir for identification.
“The Israeli government shares in the deep sorrow of the Cooper and Baruch families and of all the families of the fallen hostages,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement.
It said that Israel is “determined, committed, and working tirelessly” to bring back all of the deceased hostages for burial, adding that Hamas is “required to fulfill its commitments to the mediators and return them as part of the implementation of the agreement.”
Amiram Cooper, economist and poet
Cooper and his wife, Nurit, were brutally taken from their home after terrorists shot through their front door. They were held together in Gaza along with other kibbutz members until Nurit was freed on October 23, 2023.
On December 18, 2023, Hamas released a propaganda clip showing Amiram alongside his friends Chaim Peri and Yoram Metzger. In March 2024, Hamas claimed that all three had been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
In June 2024, Israel confirmed that Cooper, Peri, Yoram and Nadav Popplewell had been killed in captivity. An IDF investigation later determined that Peri, Metzger, and Popplewell, along with Avraham Munder, Alex Dancyg, and Yagev Buchshtav, were shot dead by their captors in mid-February 2024.
The kibbutz held a farewell ceremony for Cooper, and his family sat shiva, the weeklong mourning period. He was survived by his wife, Nurit, their four children, Rotem, Srulik, Ravit and Lotan, 11 grandchildren, and his sister, Ora. He was predeceased by his brother, Gershon.
Cooper was one of four young men from Haifa who helped found the kibbutz – alongside Arie Zalmanowicz and Oded Lifshitz, who were both also kidnapped and slain in captivity, and Shlomo Margalit, who survived the attack.
Cooper, who worked for decades as an economist, was also a poet and composer, with several published books of poetry, plays and children’s books as well as articles dealing with politics and economics.
“We will always remember Amiram as a man of people and words, a pioneer and a man of values, a man of initiative and ideas who loved the kibbutz and its people so much,” Kibbutz Nir Oz said in a statement.
The kibbutz said that Cooper was “a talented poet and composer” who wrote plays, articles, and books of poetry that “expressed his love for nature, agriculture, and kibbutz life.”
Cooper was one of 76 people taken hostage from Nir Oz, the kibbutz noted, and the last to be returned.
Sahar Baruch, engineering student
Baruch was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7 as they attacked Kibbutz Be’eri, killing dozens and kidnapping residents.
The Ben-Gurion University engineering student was with his grandmother, Geula Bachar, as well as his brother, Idan Baruch, 20, a soldier in the IDF’s Education Corps.
Sahar had run back into his grandmother’s burning house to look for an inhaler for his brother, who was fatally shot when he left the burning house, which he ran from because he was asthmatic and couldn’t breathe in the smoke.
Their grandmother was also killed by the terrorists, while Sahar was taken hostage to Gaza, where he was killed.
The military has previously said it was unable to determine the cause of Baruch’s death and that it was unknown whether he was murdered by Hamas or killed by Israeli fire during a failed hostage rescue attempt on December 8, 2023. Two soldiers of the IDF’s elite Sayeret Matkal unit were seriously wounded in the attempted hostage rescue, the military said after the incident.
Baruch was survived by his parents, Tami and Roni, and brothers Guy and Niv.
It is unclear when Hamas will return the bodies of the 11 remaining deceased captives, or how many it has access to. Israel has accused Hamas of multiple violations of the deal, and has charged that the terror group knows the location of the vast majority of the remaining bodies of hostages, and is purposely stalling.
It released video evidence this week that Hamas staged the discoveries of a hostage’s remains. In that case, on Monday night, Hamas had handed over what it said was a body of a hostage, but it was later discovered by Israel to be the partial remains of a captive who had been recovered by Israeli troops in December 2023.
The ceasefire agreement required Hamas to return all remaining 48 living and deceased hostages within 72 hours. While the group followed through in handing over all 20 living hostages, it returned only four of the 28 bodies still held in Gaza hours after the deadline. It has since returned another 13 bodies.
BY: The Times Union – TOl
