My Son Was Killed by Hamas. His Body Is Still Hostage in Gaza | Opinion

Our two sons fought to defend Israel from the brutal and illegal Hamas invasion on Oct. 7.

One was killed and his body taken hostage, the other injured.

Both Jonathan and Daniel are officers in the I.D.F and fought within 100 yards of each other on that horrific day.

Jonathan, 24 and a company commander, was shot through the thigh. Ten days later he somehow hobbled to his wedding—planned months before the war broke out—even while his younger brother and best friend Daniel was missing.

Daniel, 22, a lieutenant and tank commander, was captured, along with some of his fellow crew members, after fighting and defending communities along the border. Originally considered missing in action, two weeks later Daniel and the others were said to have been taken hostage.

Over the next 163 torturous days, we learned nothing of the fate of our son until the IDF was able to definitively confirm that he had been killed on Oct. 7. Although his body is still cruelly held by Hamas, in accordance with Jewish law, we were able to bury the shirt of his blood-stained uniform at a funeral at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem. It was attended by thousands.

Standing over his open grave—a grave which we pray will soon bear his body released from captivity—I eulogized my son. In that moment, and with the words that I write here today, I implore the international community to recognize and remember that the tragic suffering of the people of Gaza, brought upon them entirely due to Hamas's brutality, could end immediately if our hostages are returned and the terrorists lay down their arms.

We cannot allow the world to forget that it is Hamas that must remain responsible for the suffering they callously have inflicted—and continue to inflict—on the Palestinian people. This humanitarian crisis was created and now perpetuated by their actions.

As tragic as the plight of the Palestinian victims of Hamas is, there remains one humanitarian issue that must stand above all others—the immediate return of each and every hostage cruelly being held in captivity by Hamas. How is the world not demanding of Hamas the unconditional return of every last hostage? How can we look on as traffickers and traders in human beings are being rewarded for their inhuman barbarism.

For those calling for humanitarian aid, let it be perfectly clear that there can be no more humanitarian act than to ensure that our son Daniel's lifeless body, along with many others receives a dignified burial and all those alive and rotting in the terrorists' tunnels be freed immediately—without granting Hamas ransom for their heinous crimes.

The Israeli army is called the Israel Defense Forces because from the very moment of its inception its mandate has been to defend against enemies who have been relentless in their intent to destroy us. We are not a people who seek war or conflict. The challenging reality of modern Israel requires mandatory conscription to defend our right to exist as a Jewish state from those who consistently aim to destroy it.

Our sons, Jonathan and Daniel are English-speaking, peace-loving, sports-mad young men who moved to Israel with our family when they were 15 and 13 years old, respectively, and for them, so unlike our enemies, the need to fight was not born out of hatred or hopes of conquest but solely to defend their people and country.

At this deeply painful moment in our national history, the world ought to again recall that we are a people always committed to peace. Every possible attempt to share the land has been rejected outright by our Palestinian neighbors. Ernest Bevin, British foreign minister, not known as a friend of the Jews, said it best in a 1947 speech to the British parliament where he summed up the crux of the conflict: "For the Jews, the essential point... is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point... is to resist to the last the establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine."

It is as simple and painfully complex as that. Jews have been prepared to settle for any sovereignty in their historical homeland, while the Palestinians have built their tragic national narrative on victimhood and rejection of a Jewish state anywhere between the river to the sea.

If we hope for a real human resolution to this conflict, our enemies need to once and for all reject that narrative. And in this traumatic moment, the first, yet most critical step, must be the immediate and unconditional release of Daniel and the 133 captives who remain in Gaza.

Rabbi Doron Perez is the executive chairman of World Mizrachi, and father of Captain Daniel Perez, of blessed memory.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.