Amir Ettinger, an Israeli journalist who served in Gaza as an IDF reservist, shared a personal story about the troops' efforts to bring hostages kidnapped during the October 7 massacre home to Israel.

"Especially today, I want to tell you a short personal story, about how much we worked to bring home the bodies of hostages," Ettinger wrote in a post on X.

"It was one of those sweltering summer days, during July in Gaza, and we were on our last operation before leaving the Netzarim Corridor. For a few days, we operated on the outskirts of Gaza City. There was intelligence about the bodies of hostages."

"At one point, we reached the building the intelligence had indicated. The entire courtyard was in ruins. Around it were tanks that provided us with cover, half a battalion of reservists, led by the battalion commander, the battalion deputy commander, and the commanders - we took off our vests and put our weapons in a pile, and for a few hours we dug in the yard with shovels and removed debris with our hands, while around us were enemies and tank fire."

He added: "We did all of this to find even a remnant of a body. We searched in the debris and in the ground for nearly an entire day. We did not succeed. But we tried."

Testimonies such as Ettinger's demonstrate the enormous effort the IDF soldiers invested into the effort to bring hostages home; hundreds of the soldiers paid with their lives.