On Tuesday, a farewell ceremony was held at Ben Gurion Airport for slain former hostage Joshua Loitu Mollel, with state officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Sharon Haskell, friends, and colleagues from Israel’s Agrostudies program, where Mollel was studying, including the founder, Yaron Tamir, in attendance. The ceremony was live streamed for family and friends in Mollel’s home country of Tanzania. Following the playing of the Israeli and Tanzanian national anthems, a ceremonial wreath was laid atop his coffin. Ambassador Eynat Shlein, the director of MASHAV, Israel’s agency for international development cooperation, announced that a program would be founded in Tanzania in his honor to provide more resources for agricultural students. Mollel was remembered for his vivacious smile, and for his dreams that were taken from him too soon.
The Israel Daily News spoke with Ahmady, a friend of Mollel, who also came to Israel from Tanzania to study agriculture.
Here’s a transcript of our interview:
This morning was a relief moment.
My name is Ahmady, and I graduated in 2024. I don’t have a degree, I just got a diploma in agricultural production.
Right now, I am not working, and I don’t have an official job. I am trying to get a job in Israel. Right now, I just live here.
This is my second year in Israel. I came on 28th of September 2023. I came after Joshua, who came on the 19th of September.
We met in Tanzania before we came to Israel. We had a group and I was having a challenge with documents and Joshua offered me help. It was May 2023, and we started being friends until we met in August, Or July, In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We spoke on the phone and then met in person before Israel. We stayed together in the same room where we conducted orientation before coming to Israel.
When he came on the 19th, he went to Kibbutz Nahal Oz and was working at a dairy milk farm. I was working in Zohar Azulin Maor farm, and in an open field. We were not on the same farm.
I was not in touch with him in the morning. I was in touch with him on October 6th at 11 pm. He was eating and going for a walk to the night shift in the farm. He said he would eat. He starts from 11 pm and goes until 11 am in the morning. He was on the night shift. The morning of October 7th, he was just getting up and heard the sirens and our leaders were checking on the students. But we never found Joshua or his friend in the same house on the same farm. Joshua’s guide was at home that day and Joshua was at the farm. The terrorists found him in the farm.
Were you worried about Israel before you came?
No. Our government said the security was good and the relationship between countries was good. No one could imagine what would happen on October 7th. No one said something like that could happen. It was an accident. You couldn’t even say it was a lack of security. We knew there was a conflict but we trusted security. I am still here in Israel because I trust the security and the security right now is very good. The guys are working, and we feel safe. That’s why I’m still here.
After the attack, the security was so high and the care was so good which is why we chose to stay. We trusted the security.
First of all, before the video was released. I was in disbelief. I can’t believe my friend was gone. It was unimaginable. How? How? From 10 hours ago? We had this … shootings. It can’t be possible. The day they released the footage, the tragic footage of Yoshua being shot, I was at the farm . It was circulating on the internet. I was very disappointed about what happened and I could not continue working that day. We ate and went home. It was a devastating video. After that, the body was not recovered. It was recovered. No one in our country… we don’t know what happened to the body. Like, is it safe? Stored? We never knew exactly what happened. What would happen to our friend? We did not know if his dead body would be recovered for us to show our gratitude and respect to his body. Thanks to the IDF and guys fighting in Gaza for 761 days, our friend’s body came back to our country to find our final respect. We now wait for the three remaining hostage families to show their respect for their bodies.
When we arrived, we found a lot of people. A lot of guys saying wow this is amazing. This is love. The people – this is not Tanzanians, it touched everyone’s hearts. We found people holding posters of Joshua. I can say that our friend right now will rest in peace because everyone. It was an emotional morning for me because I saw this foreign minister speaking his speech, an emotional speech. It was heart touching because I could never imagine that. I was . I thought we would show respect to our brother. I was not expecting it to be like this. So many people with so much love. My friend’s soul will rest now in peace. The respect the Israelis showed to us for our brother is very big. We respect it a lot .
It was a closed casket because it was displayed in front of people. Everyone showed his respect in front of the casket but we never saw what was inside. I am Muslim. In Islam it’s not allowed to see the body. For Joshua it’s right to see the body, because in his religion it’s allowed. I didn’t know if they closed the casket … for me I can say that I don’t know if Joshua’s body remains. So when the casket is closed, I thought it was just the remains. Or it’s something we shouldn’t see. I don’t know if it’s religious.
I can say that on behalf of the friends of Joshua, we send our condolences to the family of Joshua and we hope right now they get relief to see the body of their beloved one. And also we will send a thank you to the Tanzanian Embassy to see our lovely brother will be shown his respects in his homeland where he will be buried in Tanzania. We appreciate that. And thank you to the guys who fought for his body to be back home to be shown his last respect. The last thing I am praying for – that the three remaining hostage bodies will be returned to Israel so families can show their last respect to their beloved ones.
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