The family of Elyakim Shlomo Libman, who was previously believed to be a hostage, announced on Friday that his body was found in the grave of a woman murdered on October 7.
Libman was a security guard at the Nova music festival. On October 7, he rescued several people from the massacre before going back one, final time and never returning.
It is still unclear why his body was in another person’s grave.
The army confirmed the discovery, saying that the IDF and the National Institute of Forensic Medicine had conducted an investigation into the grave, which was in Gush Dan.
היום (ו׳), הודיעו נציגי צה״ל והמכון הלאומי לרפואה משפטית, משרד הבריאות למשפחתו של אליקים ליבמן ז״ל, אשר הוגדר עד היום כחטוף, כי הוא נרצח במתקפת הטרור שהוביל ארגון הטרור חמאס ב-7 באוקטובר וגופתו נמצאה בשטח ישראל. קביעה זו מתבססת על ממצאים שאותרו, בעקבות עבודת חקירה ותהליך פענוח…
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי - Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) May 3, 2024
The discovery of the body
Libman and the woman he was buried with were murdered on October 7 in Re’im’s parking lot.
Some initial estimates were that Libman was not taken captive since there were no forensic indications that he had been abducted.
At one point, however, one of Libman’s body parts was found, raising the possibility that he was buried with another victim from the Nova massacre.ZAKA opened dozens of graves in the last few weeks until they found evidence of Libman’s DNA in a grave in the Gush Dan area.The update came a few hours after Kibbutz Be’eri announced that Dror Or was murdered on October 7 and his body was taken by Hamas to Gaza.Or’s wife, Yonat, was murdered on October 7 as well, and their children, Noam and Alma, were kidnapped then released in the ceasefire deal in November. Their eldest son, Yahli, was in the North at the time and so he was saved.A committee of experts met on Thursday and, together with representatives of the Health Ministry, intelligence officials, Israel Police, the Religious Services Ministry, and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, determined that the evidence showed that Or was murdered.
