Hostages were executed days before being found, autopsies show

(JNS) - The six hostages whose bodies were recovered by Israeli forces in a Rafah tunnel in southern Gaza overnight Saturday were shot multiple times at close range just days before their discovery, Israel's Health Ministry said on Sunday.

According to examinations conducted by the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, the captives were murdered 48 to 72 hours before the autopsies, which would place their deaths at some point between Thursday and Friday morning.

That the captives were shot at short range suggests that they were executed by their Hamas captors.

"According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them," IDF Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Sunday.

The bodies of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25, were found in a 65-foot-deep tunnel, with gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of their bodies.

According to the autopsies performed overnight Saturday, one of the hostages showed signs of having been tied up, and all showed evidence of neglect. In addition, there was evidence that they had sustained injuries during or after their kidnapping that were treated over time.

The hostages are believed to have been transported from the northern Gaza Strip to the south during the war.

The Israel Defense Forces said that it had had intelligence that hostages might be in the area and had operated carefully.

Troops found the bodies in a tunnel complex on Saturday afternoon, extracting them overnight and bringing them to Israel for identification.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi held a situation assessment at the scene on Sunday morning, accompanied by IDF Southern Command head Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman and Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon, head of the IDF's Missing and Captive Soldiers Division.

According to a Channel 12 report, security officials in Israel are concerned that Hamas executed the hostages because the terror group was worried that Qaid Farhan Alkadi, who was rescued from Hamas captivity last week, would share information as to the whereabouts of other captives.

Israeli forces rescued Alkadi, 52, a father of 11 from the Bedouin city of Rahat in the Negev, on Tuesday from a tunnel in southern Gaza, less than a mile from where the six bodies were recovered.

It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages abducted on Oct. 7 remain in Gaza. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed in 2014.

A total of 105 hostages were released in a November ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, with four having been returned before the deal. Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops. The bodies of 37 have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by Israeli forces.

There are seven remaining hostages with American citizenship. Their families held a virtual meeting on Sunday with U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and U.S. Special Coordinator for the Middle East Brett McGurk.

"Sullivan told the families that the next few days will be critical in the push to free the remaining 101 hostages," the families said in a joint statement.