The beloved sons murdered by Hamas

For 57 days, Ayelet Samerano and Mishell Iluz lived in a state of unbearable uncertainty, not knowing whether their sons, Yonatan, 21, and Guy, 26, were alive, wounded, or waiting to be rescued after 7 October. 

On 3 December 2023, both families were told their sons were no longer alive, but Hamas was still holding onto them. 

Iluz and Samerano told their agonising stories at the Yom Hazikaron ceremony in Johannesburg on 20 April, hosted by the South African Zionist Federation (SAZF). The Johannesburg Jewish community gathered to honour the 30 961 Israeli soldiers and victims of terror who have lost their lives. The two parents were brought to South Africa through a collaborative effort with the Israel Centre, the Jewish National Fund, and The Base. 

“Fifty-seven days of living with darkness, with emptiness, with nothing, no information about your son. Our children go for one hour, and we don’t know where they are, and we’ll be crazy,” said Iluz, “We go crazy because we‘re so worried about them. 

“Try to concentrate on 57 days without knowing anything about what‘s happened to your son. It‘s madness. And after 57 days, the intelligence came to my house, knocked on the door, and then told me that Guy isn’t alive anymore.” 

Israel Defense Forces troops recovered Yonatan’s body from Gaza on 21 June 2025, along with those of Ofra Keidar and Staff Sergeant Shay Levinson, and brought them back to Israel. 

Guy’s body was returned to Israel by Hamas as part of a ceasefire deal in October 2025. 

SAZF national chairperson Craig Pantanowitz said, “This day isn’t only about one moment in time, it’s also about generations. It’s about every soldier who stood in defence of Israel and every civilian whose life was cut short simply for being a Jew. Every name we recall tonight was a world, a future interrupted, a family forever changed.” 

On the morning of 7 October, Yonatan and his friends Bnayahu Bitton and Maor Gratzyani tried to leave the Nova festival grounds before the terrorists arrived. However, on the road back to Tel Aviv, police told them to turn around and find shelter because it was unsafe to drive with all the rockets flying overhead. So, they went to find shelter at Kibbutz Be’eri. 

They were communicating with their parents, saying they were in the shelter when, in fact, Samerano later saw a video showing Hamas terrorists had stopped them at the gates of the kibbutz. They’d robbed them, thrown them to the ground, and murdered them. Later, other terrorists took Yonatan’s body to Gaza. One of the men involved was identified as an employee of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 

Guy, who was working at the Nova festival with his friends Alon Werber and Almog Sarusi, tried to escape the terrorists who had entered the festival. A few minutes later, Iluz received a phone call. All Guy said was, “Father, I love you”, and the phone went silent. 

Iluz knew immediately that something was wrong and tried to find out where his son was. He later found out that Werber had been murdered, and Guy was using his phone while hiding in a tree. Iluz knew he had to go bring Guy home. But he couldn’t find him anywhere. 

“I tried to find my son among all the bodies. I saw at least 100 bodies, but I will never forget them. I remember only nice faces of people, of children who came to celebrate freedom,” said Iluz. “I don‘t remember any blood. I don‘t remember any deaths. I remember only the faces of nice young guys.” 

After that day, Iluz and Samerano hoped and prayed their sons had been kidnapped because that was the hope they were alive. 

Iluz was later told that Guy too was dead, having died 10 days after being taken into captivity as a result of his injuries. Maya Regev, a hostage who was released, told how she had seen Guy take his last breath. 

Iluz explained that while he had wanted his son’s body back, he hadn’t wanted to put other soldiers’ lives at risk in order to rescue Guy. 

Samerano, whose mission since her son’s capture had been to alert the world to the truth about UNRWA, said, “I understood then that my son chose this journey for me. And then I realised that I have a mission for the rest of my life. My young son was killed when he was just 21 years old. He was very ambitious and very successful, and he had a lot of ideas and dreams. And I took them on. To accomplish all his dreams and to do the huge mission for the Jewish people, for Israel, for my son. And I will close UNRWA. I will close UNRWA.”