The Israeli army on Wednesday stated {that a} February strike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza might have led Hamas militants to execute six hostages.
The our bodies of these six male hostages have been recovered in late August. Two days later, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that each one of them had been shot, nevertheless it couldn’t definitively say whether or not it was the reason for demise. The slain hostages have been Yoram Metzger, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Chaim Peri, Nadav Popplewell, and Yagev Buchshtab.
“It is very possible that their deaths have been associated to the strike close to the situation the place they have been held,” the army stated in a Wednesday assertion on the investigation.
Speaking at a press briefing about an investigation into the hostages’ deaths, an IDF official stated the Israeli army struck “a terror goal” on February 14 in Khan Younis, however didn’t know that hostages have been being held close by. “The investigation didn’t discover something unsuitable with this assault, within the planning course of or the execution,” the official stated.
After a forensic examination and different investigations, the army now believes that “essentially the most believable situation” is that the hostages and their guards survived the preliminary results of that strike however that the strike might have led militants to shoot the six hostages. The guards themselves subsequently died, the army official stated, from “a secondary impact” of the strike, such an absence of oxygen within the tunnel the place they have been residing.
IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari later raised the potential for the aftermath of the strike killing the hostages. He stated that whereas the most probably method the hostages died was by the hands of militants following the February assault, with the militants then dying from “secondary results of the strike,” there have been additionally different doable explanations.
“Another chance is that the hostages have been killed by secondary results together with the terrorists and subsequently shot by different terrorists who arrived later,” he stated, including, “a much less possible chance is that the hostages have been killed earlier than the strike.”
Hagari stated that as a result of period of time that handed from when the hostages have been killed to when the forensic exams passed off, “it’s not doable to definitively decide whether or not the hostages have been killed by gunfire or because of publicity to the aftermath of the strike.”
“Operational classes from this incident have been included to reduce dangers to hostages sooner or later,” he stated.
Top row L-R – Yoram Metzger, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, backside row L-R Chaim Peri, Nadav Popplewell, and Yagev Buchshtab – Hostage and Missing Families Forum/Reuters
Munder, 79, Metzger, 80, and Peri, 80, have been all residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz, close to the Gaza border, the place they have been captured throughout Hamas’ October 7 assaults, in keeping with statements from the kibbutz.
Popplewell, who was 51 when kidnapped, and Buchshtab, 35, have been taken from Kibbutz Nirim, the kibbutz stated in a press release.
Israeli troopers on August 31 discovered the our bodies of one other six hostages, this time in Rafah. Hamas stated that it had executed them as a result of it believed Israeli troopers might have been closing in.
Another hostage recovered
As the six hostages’ households have been introduced with the findings of the investigation surrounding their deaths, the army introduced on Wednesday that it recovered the physique of one more hostage.
Israel recovered 38-year-old twin German-Israeli citizen Itay Svirsky’s physique from Gaza, after he was killed by his captors, the Israeli army and safety company Shin Bet introduced.
“In a particular operation, the physique of the abductee Itay Svirsky was recovered, who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Be’eri and murdered in captivity by Hamas terrorists in January 2024,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) stated, including that the operation was carried out by Israel’s army and safety company.
“Our coronary heart is torn by the heavy lack of the Svirsky household, who additionally misplaced Itay’s dad and mom, Orit and the late Rafi, who have been murdered within the murderous assault by Hamas,” it added.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum stated Svirsky was laid to relaxation in Israel, and on behalf of his household, requested the general public to not share photographs of him from the Hamas video that was distributed in January.
In January, Hamas launched a video displaying clips of three hostages – Noa Argamani, Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi – chatting with the digital camera, ending with a caption saying, “Tomorrow, we are going to inform you of their destiny.” The subsequent day, one other video appeared to point out the useless our bodies of Svirsky and Sharabi. In the video, Argamani stated each males had been killed by Israeli bombing.
This brings the variety of hostages at the moment held – useless and alive – to 100, of which 96 have been taken on October 7.
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