Israeli military says recovered hostages’ bodies had gunshot wounds

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed Thursday that gunshot wounds were found on the bodies of six Israeli hostages held by Hamas that were retrieved from southern Gaza in a military operation this week.

The IDF recovered the hostages’ bodies Tuesday from a tunnel below Khan Younis using intelligence gathered over weeks, the military said. Nadav Shoshani, a spokesman for Israel’s army, said Hamas had used a false wall to hide the six bodies. The army also said that four bodies, seemingly of Hamas members, were found next to the hostages with no signs of gunfire.

The signs of gunfire are “further evidence of the cruelty of the terrorists who have been holding 109 hostages for 321 days,” said the Hostage Families Forum, an umbrella group for most of the relatives of hostages. “Every minute that the deal is not yet completed, another hostage could lose their life.”

Funerals were held Wednesday for several of the hostages at their home kibbutzim from which they were abducted. Those found and brought back this week were Yagev Buchshtab, 35; Alexander Dancyg, 76; Avraham Munder, 79; Yoram Metzger, 80; Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Chaim Peri, 80.

The new information comes after a Ynet report that said the army was investigating the possibility that the hostages suffocated to death as a result of a fire started during an IDF airstrike in the area.

It also comes as talks to free the remaining hostages have again been stalling, and desperation has been spiraling among the hostage families who say that the returned bodies operation this week is grim proof that their time is running out. “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,” said the Hostage Families Forum.

In a eulogy in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Thursday, Haim Mina said his friend Metzger “was a proud Zionist. He gave his life to this country which he loved so much, and which abandoned him. Even the kindhearted and forgiving Yoram would have probably cried out to the heavens and asked how the hell all this happened to us.”

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, has for months asserted that a negotiated deal, not military operations, would be the way back for most of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza.

“The IDF is working every day and night to gather more intelligence, create more operational opportunities for hostage rescues,” he said Tuesday. “But we cannot bring everyone back through rescue operations alone, therefore we are working on all efforts.”

Meanwhile, Israeli military operations have been concentrated in various areas east of Khan Younis, which has witnessed advances and retreats of tanks over the past two days. East of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip has also seen an advance of tanks after the IDF issued evacuation orders in some areas for the first time since the outbreak of the war.

According to eyewitnesses in the area, the tanks advanced to Salah al-Din Street, and shelling and gunfire from tanks and drones continued. The al-Qarara area, between Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, also experienced chaos overnight as Israeli tanks advanced farther toward areas where displaced people are sheltering.

Tens of thousands of civilians were displaced from neighborhoods in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis on Wednesday, said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. In August alone, Israeli forces issued 12 evacuation orders – once every two days on average – forcing as many as 250,000 people to move again, it added. More than 90% of Gaza’s residents have been displaced, often multiple times.

Displaced people in the area described the scene as resembling “doomsday.” Yasmine Hussein, 26, said that at around 3 p.m. Wednesday, while she was in a tent in the Mawasi area of al-Qarara, “the sounds of gunfire and shelling suddenly intensified, and people began to flee towards the west.” Most of the displaced people in her area fled.

She began gathering basic belongings and left toward the beach of Deir al-Balah, which she reached only at 8 p.m. because of “severe congestion along the road for a distance of no more than one kilometer.” Once there, she and her family - brothers, sisters and parents - “stayed awake all night until the early morning hours,” she said.

It is the eighth time Hussein and her family have been displaced. They’ve moved from Beit Lahia, to the Jabalya camp, then Nuseirat, then Deir al-Balah, then Rafah, and currently east of al-Qarara.

“If evacuation orders are meant to protect civilians, the fact is that they are leading to the exact opposite,” the U.N. office said Thursday. “They are forcing families to flee again, often under fire and with the few belongings they can carry with them, into an ever-shrinking area that is overcrowded, polluted, with limited services and – like the rest of Gaza – unsafe.”

What else to know

- President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday and discussed “Israel’s defense against all threats from Iran,” including “ongoing defensive U.S. military deployments,” according to a White House readout of the call. Biden also “stressed the urgency of bringing the cease-fire and hostage release deal to closure” ahead of upcoming talks in Cairo, the readout said.

- The parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli American who was taken hostage in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday. They were greeted by chants of “Bring them home!” Jon Polin, the 23-year-old captive’s father, stressed the importance of a cease-fire and hostage release deal that would “bring our precious children, mothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents, and grandchildren home, and will stop the despair in Gaza.”

- DNC organizers decided not to give a slot to a potential speaker on the devastation in Gaza since Israel’s military operation began, according to a person familiar with the convention planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose a decision that was not yet public. The decision is a blow to leaders of the “uncommitted” movement, which seeks to influence the party into adopting more pro-Palestinian policies, that has 36 delegates in attendance.

- The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has arrived in the Middle East accompanied by an array of warships and combat aircraft, U.S. Central Command said Wednesday, the latest U.S. military muscle sent to the region.