There is a “high probability” that three hostages held by the Hamas terrorist group were killed in a Nov. 10, 2023, airstrike, according to the Israel Defense Forces on Sept. 15.
The bodies were discovered in December 2023.
This strike killed Ahmed Ghandour, the commander of Hamas’s northern brigade. It also collaterally killed Cpl. Nik Beizer, Sgt. Ron Sherman, and Elia Toledano, according to the Israeli military in a report.
It is the first time the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has connected an airstrike to hostage deaths.
However, “it is not possible to definitely determine the circumstances of their deaths,” said the report.
Those three were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, when the terrorist group launched the deadliest single-day attack against Jews since the Holocaust.
This development comes just weeks after the IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages on Aug. 31: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American; Eden Yerushalmi; Almog Sarusi; Master Sgt. Ori Danino; Carmel Gat; and Alexander Lobanov.
The recovery led to mass protests in Israel where protesters criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not doing enough to bring the hostages home.
The IDF released on Sept. 10 a video of the tunnel where the six hostages were killed by Hamas.
“They were here in this tunnel in horrific conditions, where there’s no air to breathe, where you cannot stand,” said Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari in the footage.
For the families of the hostages seeing the video, it “was very hard for them to see how their loved ones survived in those conditions,” said Hagari.
Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas nearly a year ago, there are believed to be 101, including seven Americans, remaining in Gaza. The United States and other Western nations have pushed Israel and Hamas to come to a deal that would implement a cease-fire in exchange for the release of the hostages. Qatar, a U.S. ally, has been an intermediary in the negotiations.
