Family of murdered Israeli hostage Almog Sarusi welcomes baby brother born from egg frozen 25 years ago

The family of murdered Israeli hostage Almog Sarusi welcomed a baby boy this week who was born using an egg his parents froze 25 years ago, an extraordinary development that the family described as a blessing following the loss of their son in Gaza.

The family held a public circumcision ceremony for the baby on Monday at the Noaleh events hall in Ra’anana, attended by relatives, public officials and well-wishers.

Sarusi was kidnapped into the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, and held hostage for nearly a year before being murdered in a Gaza tunnel alongside five other hostages as IDF troops were reportedly close to their location.

“No one was left with dry eyes,” said Ra’anana Mayor Chaim Broyde. “This is the story of a long, complicated journey, in a reality beyond anything one could imagine.”

Broyde said Almog’s parents, Nira and Yigal, had undergone a medical procedure in 2001 to freeze eggs so they could potentially have more children in the future.

“That is where the unbelievable story begins,” he wrote, adding that the story has now ended with “a blood bond between two brothers who will never meet.”

The frozen eggs were eventually forgotten as Nira and Yigal’s children grew up.

After Sarusi was murdered, however, the family remembered the procedure and began searching for the frozen eggs.

They eventually found a surrogate mother who agreed to have an egg implanted and carry the baby to term. The pregnancy was difficult, and the first attempt was unsuccessful, but the family continued trying.

This week, the family welcomed their new baby boy, whom they described as a source of great joy.

The invitations to the circumcision ceremony said the family had received a miracle, noting that the baby was born on Yom Kippur. The invitation also acknowledged that the family would always carry the pain of Sarusi’s death while remaining determined to embrace the blessings they believe God has given them.

According to publicly available media reports and records, the 27-year-old was attending the Nova music festival near Re’im on the morning of Oct. 7 with his girlfriend, Shahar Gindi, who was among those murdered by Hamas.

Sarusi was among the hundreds of people taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack. According to an IDF investigation, he was held with other hostages in a tunnel in the Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah.

On Aug. 31, 2024, the bodies of six hostages, including Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Carmel Gat, Alex Lobanov and Almog Sarusi, were discovered in a tunnel approximately 20 meters (65 feet) underground. Evidence indicated that they had been murdered shortly before their bodies were found.

The deaths of these six hostages became a major turning point in the Israeli hostage crisis, prompting widespread public pressure on the government to accelerate efforts to secure the release of those still being held in Gaza.

For Sarusi's family, however, the process of rebuilding their lives has continued alongside the grief.

“Almog moved things around up there to make this happen,” his sister Amit wrote in an Instagram post. “The absence, the pain and the longing live inside us every moment. Nothing will heal the pain. Life simply goes on alongside it.”

Amit also addressed Almog directly, telling him about his new baby brother and saying the boy would grow up learning about the older brother he would never meet.

She added a personal message about how much she and the family missed him and their determination to defend his legacy and the State of Israel against those who would seek to destroy it.