Russian-Israeli dual citizen Aleksandr Lobanov has been identified among the six hostages found dead in a tunnel in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said on Sunday.
Lobanov (named Alex Lubnov by Israeli officials) was seized by Hamas militants during their incursion into southern Israel on October 7. The five other hostages whose bodies were discovered on Saturday evening were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, aged 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Carmel Gat, 40, and Alms Sarusi, 25.
Lobanov, a 32-year-old father-of-two, lived in Ashkelon, and was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, where he was working as a bar manager, according to the Hostage Families Forum, an organization representing relatives of the captives. According to testimonies cited by the organization, Alex helped to evacuate people and ran with five others to Be’eri forest, but was captured while they escaped.
Lobanov is survived by his wife and two children, one aged two and the…