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Identifying victims is a grueling process but a sacred necessity.
Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO)’s Dr. Esi Sharon-Sagie led the identification of October 7 massacre victims via dental records, together with the team she heads at the Israel Police Forensic Odontology Unit within the Dental Division of Identification and Forensic Science.
Two hundred men and women, including experts in forensic medicine, forensic dentistry, forensic anthropology, DNA analysis and crime scene investigation from Israel and the United States, gathered at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem for the first International Symposium on “Lessons Learned from October 7 in Forensic Medicine.”
Conference Chair Dr. Ira Titunik, a forensic odontologist with more than 40 years of experience in forensic medicine and human identification, said the purpose of the symposium also served to memorialize those murdered and kidnapped in the massacre as well as recognize those who worked to identify them.
“I’ve been in forensic odontology and forensic medicine for over 40 years, but nothing I experienced before can compare with the events in Israel on October 7. What I discovered here was evil and sick, and the depravity experienced here in Israel on this date will never be forgotten,” he said in his opening remarks. “Behind every identification, every scientific finding, was a human being, a person with a name, a family, a history and a life.”
Leah Goldin, mother of Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, who was killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014, addressed the importance of recognition. In November 2025, her son’s body was returned to Israel for burial after 11 years in Hamas captivity.
In 2014, Dr. Chen Kugel, director of the Israel National Center of Forensic Medicine, and his team identified Goldin through forensic evidence only, as his remains were in Gaza. In 2025, Goldin was identified again by Kugel’s team and Dr. Sharon-Sagie’s team.
“I’m here to say thank you,” Goldin’s mother said. “You returned our dignity and glory. Over the years we said, ‘bring home Hadar and you’ll return the glory to the Jewish people and to Israel.’ For us, you are agents of life, because you returned the life to our family.”
Roni Eshel was murdered at the Nahal Oz base together with fellow soldiers by Hamas terrorists on the morning of the massacre. She was identified 34 days later. Her father, Eyal Eshel, expressed his gratitude. “Thank you for your professionalism, your precision and responsibility. There is one thing that only you can give us, and it is invaluable: the truth.” He added, “take all the autopsy reports and share them with the world so that it understands what happened here and the magnitude of the human atrocity committed by Hamas terrorists.”
HMO Director General Prof. Yoram Weiss, MD, emphasized the significance of the identification work for the world and posterity. “We are writing history. At the end of the day, we need to convince the world what the facts are.”
“Our mother organization is Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America. We are proud Zionists. Zionism was based on humanity. Zionism was based on helping. When our organization was founded more than 115 years ago, it was built on the idea of bridges to peace and this is enshrined in our everyday work.”
Thanks to Hadassah support from abroad, HMO was able to contribute a mobile CT to Israel without which the identification would have been much more difficult, Prof. Weiss said.
“Three hundred thousand people, women and men, members of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America and all Hadassah workers, are so proud of our faculty of dentistry and the physicians from the faculty who participated in this work. We are humbled to be with you and work with you. Thank you,” he added.
Dr. Sharon-Sagie, director of the oral rehabilitation graduate program at the Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Dental Medicine, delineated her work in identifying October 7 victims and hostages using dental records.
She spoke about the task of identifying Shiri Bibas and her young son, Ariel.
Together with her team, Dr. Sharon-Sagie searched for the last missing Israeli, Ran Gvili, whose body was among the 800–1,000 bodies buried in a mass grave in Gaza. Gvili’s body was the 251st body they examined. When they affirmed that this was Gvili, “the sound was like in a stadium when someone hits a goal,” she shared of the moment. She then ceremoniously removed her necklace with the yellow hostage ribbon she had been wearing for two years.
