By Deutsche Welle
Sep 15, 2024, 9:35 PM EDT
The Israeli military confirmed on Sunday “with high probability” that three hostages, whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel in northern Gaza in mid-December, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November on their location.
These are the conclusions announced today by the Army to the relatives of Ron Sherman and Nik Beizer, both 19, and Elia Toledano, 28; the three presumed dead in Gaza after Israel attacked the tunnel complex in which they were held in Yabalia in order to kill a Hamas commander.
The conclusion of his death “is based on the location of the bodies in relation to the impact of the attack, the execution of the attack, intelligence findings, the results of the pathology reports, as well as the determination of the Institute of Legal Medicine,” details a military statement.
The hostages held in the tunnels
“The investigation shows that the three hostages were held in the tunnel complex from which (Hamas commander Ahmed) Ghandour operated. At the time of the attack, we had no information about the presence of hostages,” the statement said.
Their deaths follow those of three other captives shot dead “by mistake” by Israeli troops in mid-December in Shujaiya, on the outskirts of Gaza City, despite the fact that they were not wearing shirts and were carrying a white flag, a military spokesman revealed at the time.
Hostages killed in Rafah
Two days ago, during a trip by international media embedded with the Israeli Army to Rafah, south of Gaza, in which EFE was present, the spokesman for the Israeli Army, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said that the troops are examining with the “utmost care” the network of tunnels found in Rafah in order not to repeat past mistakes.
In late August, six people who were taken hostage on October 7 were found dead in an underground tunnel in the Rafah area of the southern Gaza Strip. The deceased were identified as Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino.
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