Iván Illarramendi, the 46-year-old Basque man who was thought to have been kidnapped by the Islamist group Hamas and whose whereabouts had been unknown since October 7th, has died, according to diplomatic sources from the Spanish foreign ministry, who did not give further details about the exact circumstances. Diplomatic sources confirmed to the Europa Press agency that Illarramendi and his wife were killed by Hamas during the October 7th attack. He is the second Spanish citizen known to have died in the conflict in Gaza, after Maya Villalobo, who also died on the day of the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7th. Villalobo, who had dual Spanish-Israeli nationality, was doing her military service in the Israeli army.
Illarramendi and his wife Dafna, a Chilean national, disappeared in Israel on October 7th, during the Hamas attack. It was known that Illarramendi was with his wife at Kibbutz Kissufim, where they lived, very close to the border with the Gaza Strip, and that they had been attacked by Hamas militiamen. Dafna's father and Illarramendi's father-in-law, Danny Garcovich, recounted on October 19th how the situation in Gaza unfolded and the last conversation he had with his daughter, when they were already under attack. On Saturday, October 7th at 12:30pm, daughter and father exchanged a series of messages in which she asked for "help, help, help," before communication was cut off. Dafna had told her father that Arabic-speaking people had entered her house, and were destroying everything. Almost everyone in this area has an armoured room in their home, explained Garcovich.
Over 170 Spaniards are still in Gaza: "departure delayed"
Meanwhile, the acting Spanish defence minister, Margarita Robles, has expressed "concern" about the delay in the authorization for the departure of "between 170 and 190 Spaniards" from Gaza, among them "almost 80 children, in addition to elderly people", affirming that the entire operation for the evacuation to Egypt is already ready. Margarita Robles communicated this to journalists this Wednesday after a military visit to Paracuellos de Jarama (Madrid). "I want to express the concern we feel about the fact that the Spaniards who are in Gaza have not yet left, but the entire team that is in Egypt, from both the foreign and defence ministries, and the military advisers, are waiting for their departure to be authorized", she said.
"We are worried because their departure is being delayed, but the evacuation operation is ready. People from a few countries, but not from Spain," commented Robles, adding that "the situation in Gaza is very difficult", but she wanted to show her "confidence that this evacuation can be carried out as soon as possible".
On October 7th, more than 1,000 militants from the Islamist group Hamas entered Israel in a terrorist attack on an unprecedented scale, which left around 1,400 dead, nearly 5,400 injured, more than 200 kidnapped and many missing. On the other hand, Israel's armed response so far has raised the number of fatalities in the Gaza Strip to 10,569 people, including 4,324 children, according to the latest data from the Gaza health ministry, which reports that half of the fatalities in recent hours have been in southern Gaza, a supposedly safe area. Since the war began a month ago, 26,475 people with injuries are in overflowing hospitals, without medicine or fuel to continue operating, according to the United Nations.