The Man Who Took Seven People Is Dead

The man who took seven people from a kibbutz on October 7 is dead. The Israel Defense Forces said they killed him in a strike on Gaza this week.

The man who took seven people from a kibbutz on October 7 is dead. The Israel Defense Forces said they killed him in a strike on Gaza this week. He was one of two terrorists from that day who were killed. One of them abducted hostages from Kibbutz Be’eri.

The IDF named him as Muhammad Jamal Mahmoud Abu Al-Shaar. He was a cell commander in Hamas’s military wing, the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades. The military said he entered Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7 and took part in abducting six Israelis into the Gaza Strip. Those six were Sharon Hertzman-Avigdori, Noam Avigdori, Adi Shoham, Nave Shoham, Yahel Shoham, and Shoshan Haran. All of them were released in November 2023 as part of a ceasefire deal.

The second terrorist killed was an Islamic Jihad commander. The IDF said he also infiltrated Israel on October 7. His name was Musab Abd al-Jalil Saqib Balbisi. He was killed in a separate strike in Jabalia. Both men had recently been involved in attacks against Israeli troops and civilians, in what the military called systematic violations of the ceasefire.

Here is the thing that stays with me. Seven people. A mother and her daughter visiting family. A grandmother, her daughter, and two young children. Another aunt and her child. Taken together on a single morning. The names are not abstract. They are a family tree cut in half and carried across a border.

Kibbutz Be’eri was one of the communities hit hardest on October 7. Hamas-led attackers killed more than 130 people there. They took many more into Gaza. The Shoham family lost Tal Shoham, who was held separately from his wife Adi and their children Naveh and Yahel. He was released after 505 days in February 2025. His wife, children, and mother-in-law Shoshan Haran were released in November 2023. Sharon Avigdori and her 12-year-old daughter Noam were visiting that weekend when they were taken. They came home in the same deal.

The IDF said the strikes this week used precision munitions and aerial surveillance to limit civilian harm. That is the language they use. It is meant to draw a line between a target and everything around it. But the line does not erase the fact that the man who took these people lived in Gaza for almost three years after he took them. He walked out of a kibbutz with seven hostages and into a war that would not end.

You can say this is justice. You can say it is one more name on a list of terrorists eliminated. Both are true. And still, the math does not balance. More than 1,200 Israelis were killed on October 7. About 240 were taken hostage. Dozens remain in Gaza, alive or dead. The bodies of six hostages were found in a tunnel in Rafah in June 2025. They had been killed 48 to 72 hours before their bodies were recovered. Their names were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi. Some of them were taken from Kibbutz Be’eri too.

I keep thinking about the word abductor. It is cleaner than kidnapper. It sounds like a job title. But the job was to take people from their homes and hold them in tunnels. The IDF said Abu Al-Shaar was a cell commander. That means he gave orders. That means he planned. That means he woke up on October 7 knowing what he would do.

The strikes came on Tuesday in Gaza City and Jabalia. The military said both terrorists had recently been advancing attacks against Israeli troops and civilians. They were killed to remove the threat they posed. That is the whole sentence. No drama. No flourish. Just a threat removed.

And yet, the families are still here. The ones who came home sit at tables with empty chairs. The ones who did not come home are names on a wall. Tal Shoham is home now, but he was held for 505 days. His wife and children were home for most of that time, but they carry the same days in a different way. Sharon Hertzman-Avigdori and Noam Avigdori went back to their lives. Shoshan Haran went back to her work with Fair Planet, the agricultural aid group she founded. But the man who took them was still alive until this week.

This is where the story stops being a headline and becomes a room where no one talks. The IDF killed two terrorists. One of them took seven people from a kibbutz. The seven came home. Others did not. The war goes on. The ceasefire is violated. The strikes continue. The names stack up.

I do not know what to say that makes this feel resolved. Maybe nothing does. Maybe the only honest thing is to say the names and let them sit there. Sharon Hertzman-Avigdori. Noam Avigdori. Adi Shoham. Nave Shoham. Yahel Shoham. Shoshan Haran. Tal Shoham. Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Eden Yerushalmi. Ori Danino. Alex Lobanov. Carmel Gat. Almog Sarusi.

The man who took seven of them is dead. The seven are alive. The rest are not. That is the story. It is not a clean one. It is not a story that ends. It is a story that keeps being told, one strike, one name, one day at a time.