Jewish immigrants from Europe disembark from an airplane upon their arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Lod, Israel, on June 25, 2025. Tomer Neuberg/Reuters

On November 22, 2023, Chantal and Nicky Young closed their front door in London for the final time and boarded a flight to Israel.

Family members were waiting at arrivals in Tel Aviv with a sign saying, “Welcome home Grandma and Grandpa.” One person who wasn’t there, however, was the youngest of their five children: Nathanel.

The 20-year-old was murdered by Hamas on October 7. Two years previously he’d made Aliyah – the term for Jewish immigration to Israel, which translates as “ascendance” – and was serving with the Israel Defense Forces on the Gaza border.

“Nathanel’s dream had been for us to make Aliyah. He’d b

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