Hamas tortured Israeli hostage to death over claim he was IDF pilot

Israeli hostage Itzik Elgarat died as Hamas terrorists tortured him for information because they mistook him for an IDF pilot, his brother told the Knesset on Monday.

Dani Elgarat revealed the circumstances of his brother's death at a tense Knesset House Committee meeting.

He said he had been visited by intelligence officials a day earlier, who told his family that Itzik –whose body was returned as part of the hostage-ceasefire deal on February 26 – died of a heart attack during an interrogation when he was tortured for information.

Family members and friends carry a coffin covered with Israeli flag during a funeral for Itzik Elgarat, who was tortured and killed while in Hamas captivity. (Getty Images)Getty Images

“My brother was with Edan Alexander,” Elgarat told the committee, referring to the young IDF soldier, a dual US-Israeli citizen, who was released on May 12.

“They suspected that [Itzik] was a pilot because he had a tattoo with the shape of an eagle on his hand. They took him for interrogation and he didn’t come back,” his brother said.

“Edan asked where Itzik was and they told him: ‘He was gone.’ Itzik died. He was murdered, he suffered a heart attack during interrogation under torture.”

Itzik, 68, was at his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023. Terrorists shot through his safe room door, where he was hiding, injured him and took him captive, alongside 250 other hostages.

When his body was returned to Israel, he was buried close to his home at the kibbutz. At his funeral on March 3, Dani, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of having “dug his grave”. Itzik is survived by two children.

His body was returned to Israel alongside the remains of Shlomo Mansour, 86, Ohad Yahalomi, 50, and Tsachi Idan, 49. All four men had been murdered in Gaza.

At the Knesset meeting on Monday, Elgarat was escorted out of the chamber by guards after accusing Netanyahu of funding Hamas. 

For years, the Israeli government was aware of (and encouraged) the Qatari government sending millions of dollars a month into Gaza to prop up the Hamas government, in a bid to maintain a fragile peace. 

However, the government maintains that none of these payments were used for military purposes or to fund the October 7 attacks.

Since the war in Gaza began, the families of hostages and victims of Hamas’ attack have maintained a continued presence in Knesset meetings, to put pressure on political leaders to reach a deal to return all the hostages home. 

There are 50 hostages still being held in Gaza - 49 of whom were kidnaped during the attack by Hamas, according to the Israeli government. Twenty-eight are confirmed to have died.