Slain hostage Almog Sarusi’s parents welcome newborn son

‘‘We’re insisting life goes on’’ – Three years after their son was abducted by Hamas terrorists, who later murdered him, the parents of Almog Sarusi celebrate a “true miracle” after a new child born from long-frozen eggs via a surrogate.

By World Israel News Staff

Nearly three years after Hamas terrorists abducted their eldest son from the Nova music festival — and two years after he was murdered in captivity — Nira and Yigal Sarusi have welcomed a baby boy conceived using an egg that had been frozen for roughly a quarter of a century.

The child, named Lavi, was born through a surrogate on Yom Kippur, bringing what his family describes as an extraordinary burst of joy into a home still living with the loss of Almog Sarusi.

“It’s a true miracle,” Yigal Sarusi said.

The story began about 25 years ago, when the couple underwent a medical procedure in which Nira’s eggs were frozen. They went on to raise four children, and as the years passed, the stored eggs largely faded from the family’s mind.

After Almog’s death, however, his parents remembered them.

With the support of their surviving children, the couple located the long-frozen eggs and began exploring whether they could have another child through surrogacy.

The process was far from certain. Egg-freezing technology was considerably less advanced when the eggs were stored around 2001 than it is today, and the family encountered unsuccessful attempts before eventually achieving a pregnancy.

They kept the process almost entirely private.

“We didn’t talk about it because we didn’t know if it would succeed,” Yigal later explained.

Then, on Yom Kippur, Lavi was born.

The family publicly introduced him days later at his circumcision ceremony in Ra’anana, where relatives and friends gathered around parents who had spent much of the previous three years fighting for Almog and then mourning him.

“A miracle happened to us,” the family wrote in the invitation to the ceremony.

Lavi’s name, meaning “lion” in Hebrew, was chosen for a baby whose arrival the family sees as a declaration of continuity after the devastation of October 7.

“We’re insisting life goes on,” Yigal said.

The joy does not replace the grief, he emphasized.

“We cry, but we have the joy now. It’s the two things together.”

Almog’s sister Amit expressed much the same sentiment as she introduced her new baby brother to the world.
“Almog moved things around up there to make this happen,” she wrote.

“The absence, the pain and the longing live inside us every moment,” Amit added. “Nothing will heal the pain. Life simply goes on alongside it.”

Lavi will grow up knowing the story of a brother he will never meet.

Almog, 27, was a civil engineering student from Ra’anana who attended the Nova festival near Re’im on October 7, 2023, with his girlfriend, Shahar Gindi, and friends.

When Hamas-led terrorists attacked the festival, Almog reportedly remained behind with Shahar after she was wounded instead of fleeing without her. Shahar was murdered and Almog was taken alive into Gaza.

The couple had met while traveling in India and were living together while studying. Almog had been planning to propose to her.

He remained in captivity for 331 days.

On August 31, 2024, Israeli troops discovered the bodies of Almog and five other hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat and Alexander Lobanov — inside a tunnel in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah.

An IDF investigation later concluded that the six had been murdered by their Hamas captors around August 29.