The discovery comes months after his body was returned to Israel for burial on October 13, 2025, as part of a ceasefire deal.
By The IDF Club
The combat team of the Carmeli Brigade located the weapon of Captain Daniel Perez inside a booby-trapped compound in northern Gaza Strip, following what the IDF described as precise intelligence. The discovery comes months after his body was returned to Israel for burial on October 13, 2025, as part of a ceasefire deal.
Perez, 22, from Yad Binyamin, fell in battle on October 7 while fighting Hamas terrorists. In March 2024, it was cleared for publication that his body had been taken into Gaza by members of the terror organization. He served as a platoon commander in the 77th Battalion of the 7th Armored Brigade.
On the morning of October 7, Captain Perez rushed to his tank near the Gaza border, joining his crew, known as “Team Perez,” in hours of fierce combat as they tried to repel the Hamas assault near the Nahal Oz military outpost. Perez was killed alongside Sergeant Tomer Leibovitz and Staff Sergeant Itay Chen. The bodies of Perez and Chen were taken into Gaza after the battle, while their comrade Matan Angrest was abducted alive and later released.
Perez was one of four fallen hostages whose remains were returned in the most recent hostage deal. Alongside him came the bodies of Yossi Sharabi, who was kidnapped alive from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri and murdered in Hamas captivity; Guy Iluz, who according to evidence died in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital after being denied proper treatment; and Bipan Joshi, believed to have been killed in the early months of his captivity.
Recovering Perez’s weapon reflects the IDF’s determination to preserve the memory of its heroes and to stand unwavering against the enemies they confronted.
