The bodies of the six hostages recovered by the IDF from southern Gaza’s Khan Younis this week all have signs of gunfire wounds, according to initial autopsy findings released Thursday
IDF representatives showed the families of Alex Dancyg, Yagev Buchshtav, Chaim Peri, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, and Avraham Munder the findings from the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute.
According to the institute’s report, the bodies of the six hostages all have signs of gunfire, likely indicating they were killed by their captors.
The findings are initial, and the IDF and health officials have not yet determined the exact causes of deaths.
The institute is also working to identify four more bodies found near the hostages, who are believed by the IDF to be terrorists. The institute’s preliminary investigation had found no signs of gunfire on any of those bodies.
The recovery operation took place overnight between Monday and Tuesday this week, amid a week-old operation in Khan Younis that was expanded last weekend.
The bodies were located in a 10-meter-deep tunnel shaft hidden behind a false wall.
The soldiers did not encounter any resistance inside the tunnel, though forces did kill several gunmen in the surrounding area, and some terror operatives guarding the tunnel fled as Israeli forces established control.
The troops found weapons on several dead terror operatives within a few hundred meters of the tunnel where the bodies were held, close to some of the shafts that led to the underground passages. Military sources said those gunmen were likely guarding the area of the tunnel.
In a statement on Thursday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the discovery of bullets in the hostages’ bodies was “further proof of the cruelty of the terrorists who have been holding 109 hostages for 321 days.
“In every minute that the deal is not completed, another hostage could lose their life. After ten and a half months of war in which the hostages have been suffering, tortured, and dying, it is clear to all that the return of the hostages is only possible through a deal,” the forum continued.
“The recovery of the six bodies is no achievement; it is a testimony of the complete failure to reach a deal in time, as six hostages who were supposed to return alive have returned in coffins,” it said.
Earlier this week, Ron Metzger, the son of slain hostage Yoram Metzger, told 103FM radio, “Dad was shot, he wasn’t hurt by an IDF operation,” emphasizing that his family did not cast any guilt on the Israeli military, but only on Hamas.
Metzger was laid to rest on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Immigration and Absorption Minister Ofir Sofer attended the funeral of Yagev Buchshtav, laying a wreath from the government at the slain hostage’s gravesite.
According to the Ynet news site, Esther Buchshtav, the slain hostage’s mother, said it was the first time someone from the government reached out to her family about her son’s death.
“I hope we started a new tradition,” Buchshtav said, “that the government of Israel will know to lay wreaths next to hostages who were murdered,” saying it was the first time the government had done so.
Her family already held a ceremony in July, before Yagev’s body was recovered, after Israel confirmed he’d been killed in captivity. No one from the government attended then, Buchshtav said.
“It’s no comfort, but we think the state should be in touch with its citizens, should take responsibility— we’re waiting for them to speak with us and tell us everything,” she went on.
“I ask that they stop everything and bring the hostages back, so that there won’t be another case like ours. It doesn’t matter how they were killed— there’s no time. I’m crying out everywhere I can, we must help them return,” she added.