Grieving brother reveals Hamas tortured hostage to death after mistaking him for a pilot

Hamas suspected Itzik Elgarat was a pilot because of an eagle-shaped tattoo on his arm.

By Jewish Breaking News

Chaos erupted in a Knesset committee meeting Monday as security guards dragged away the brother of a slain Hamas-held hostage who had just revealed that terrorists tortured his sibling to death.

Danny Elgarat had come to share devastating new details about his brother’s final moments. Intelligence officials had visited his home just one day earlier with the brutal truth about how 68-year-old Itzik died in captivity.

“Itzik died during interrogation in captivity because they thought he was a pilot,” Danny told the committee. “They took him in for interrogation, and he did not return. He had a heart attack.”

Hamas suspected Itzik was a pilot because of an eagle-shaped tattoo on his arm.

Itzik Elgarat was kidnapped from his Kibbutz Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, after Hamas terrorists shot him through his safe room door, wounding his hand.

Danny was on the phone with his brother during the attack and heard him say, “Danny, this is the end, this is the end.” By 12:10 that afternoon, Danny could see his brother’s phone had been located in Gaza.

Intelligence sources told Danny that Itzik had been held alongside Edan Alexander, the US-Israeli soldier recently released from Hamas captivity.

When Itzik failed to return from interrogation, “Edan Alexander asked, ‘Where is Itzik?’ So they said he is gone. Murdered. Had a heart attack under torture during interrogation,” Danny recounted.

After delivering this testimony, Danny’s anger turned toward Israeli leadership.

Guards moved in to remove him as he yelled accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had indirectly funded Hamas through Qatari funds that had been allowed to cross into Gaza prior to the Hamas-led massacre.

Itzik, who had lived in Denmark for years before returning to Nir Oz, was survived by two children living in Denmark, a brother, and two sisters.

Family members described him as a world traveler, nature enthusiast, and devoted Maccabi Tel Aviv football fan who served as the “coolest uncle” to his family.

Hamas returned Itzik’s body in late February as part of a temporary ceasefire deal that saw the release of dozens of hostages, both living and dead. At his funeral in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Danny had proclaimed that Netanyahu “dug his grave.”