The Israeli military says the body of an Israeli hostage held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip has been recovered in a joint operation with the Shin Bet security service.
A statement said that Itay Svirsky, 38, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri during Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, “was murdered in captivity by his captors.”
Hamas said in January that Svirsky and another hostage, Yossi Sharabi, 53, had been killed by Israeli airstrikes.
Earlier, the military said an investigation had concluded that the most plausible explanation for the deaths of six other hostages found dead in a tunnel in Gaza in August was that they had been shot by Hamas “close” to the time of an Israeli air raid.
Troops recovered the bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, 35, Alexander Dancyg, 76, Avraham Munder, 79, Yoram Metzger, 80, Chaim Peri, 79, and Nadav Popplewell, a 51-year-old British-Israeli dual national, along with those of six Hamas fighters in the southern Khan Younis area.
The military said it was “highly likely” that the hostages’ deaths were linked to a February attack on a nearby underground site targeted by Hamas commanders.
Pathologists found evidence of gunshots on the hostages’ bodies, while no gunshot wounds were found on the fighters’ bodies, it added.
Due to the long time that had passed, “it was not possible to determine with complete certainty the precise cause of death of the hostages or the exact time of the gunfire,” the military said.
“Under the most plausible scenario, the terrorists shot the hostages just before the attack,” the report said. “However, it is also possible that the hostages were shot postmortem by other terrorists; it is even possible that the hostages were murdered in the area before the attack.”
An Israeli military official told reporters that the army believed the six Hamas fighters “were killed by secondary effects of our attack,” such as lack of oxygen.
The military also emphasized that at the time of the attack it “had no information” that the hostages were in the underground location that was targeted or in its vicinity.
“Had such information been available, the strike would not have been carried out,” the report said, noting that this was subject to the required planning and approval process.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Clockwise from top left: Nadav Popplewell, Avraham Munder, Yagev Buchshtab, Alex Dancyg, Yoram Metzger and Chaim Peri [Hostage Families Forum]
Buchshtab, Dancyg, Munder, Metzger, Peri and Popplewell were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, 2023.
About 1,200 people were killed that day by Hamas-led gunmen, while 251 others were returned to Gaza as hostages.
The US, Egypt and Qatar have been working for months on a deal to secure the release of the 96 remaining hostages, 35 of whom are presumed dead, in exchange for a ceasefire in Gaza.
But negotiations have stalled, with Hamas and Israel blaming each other for the impasse.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the military investigation’s findings provide “yet more evidence that the lives of hostages are in constant and daily danger.”
“Time is of the essence – many of the hostages are still alive and enduring impossible conditions of abuse, starvation and isolation,” the report warned.
The forum called on the US and the other mediators to “do whatever is necessary to reach an agreement on the return of the hostages.”
It separately welcomed the return of Itay Svirsky’s body for burial in Israel, saying it “provides crucial closure for his family.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement on Wednesday that “pressure is growing on the monstrous organization known as Hamas.”
“There’s a chance we can actually pull off a hostage deal this time.”
Five people were reportedly killed in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Wednesday [Anadolu]
More than 44,500 people have been killed since Israel launched a military campaign in response to the October 7 attack, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.
At least 20 people were killed by an airstrike in Israel’s designated “humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, on Wednesday evening, according to medics and the Hamas-run Civil Defense Agency.
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said a tent camp for displaced families was bombed and five children were among the dead.
The Israeli military said its planes targeted “senior Hamas terrorists” in the area.
According to Bassal, another 10 people were killed when Israeli strikes hit three houses in Gaza City, northern Gaza.
Earlier, five people were killed in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat urban refugee camp in central Gaza, doctors said. Local media said four of the dead were children and that the strike focused on a line outside a bakery.
The Israeli army said it had struck a “terrorist target” in Nuseirat, without providing any details, according to the Associated Press.
