Spain says citizen missing after Hamas attack is dead

Spain's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that a Spaniard missing in Israel following the Hamas attack in October is dead. The ministry identified him as Iván Illarramendi. It declined to give any further details.

In a message on X, formerly known as Twitter, Israel's ambassador to Spain, Rodica Radian-Gordon, said: “Our hearts are torn by the news of the brutal murder of Iván Illarramendi. He has been identified a month after the terrorist massacre committed by Hamas in Israel, along with his wife Dafna Garcovich.” The Israeli Embassy was unable to say where the death occurred.

Spain's state news agency Efe and other Spanish news outlets have reported that Illarramendi and his Chilean wife had been living in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip.

The ministry confirmed the death of another Spaniard with Israeli citizenship, Maya Villalobo Sinvany, on Oct. 11.

Following the attacks, the ministry would only say that two Spaniards had been “affected” in the attacks.

Villalobo was reported to have been in military service at an Israeli miliary base at the time of the attack. (AP)