Several of the six Israeli hostages who were slaughtered by their Hamas captors in Gaza last month attempted to fight off their killers, their families have reportedly been told by the IDF.
Israeli Channel 12 News reported that IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari briefed some of the devastated families of the six who had their lives cruelly snatched on the details of their captivity and how they were executed.
Hagari informed the families of what are believed to be the initial findings of the IDF’s investigation into the brutal killings, and showed them footage taken from inside the Rafah tunnel where they were held hostage and murdered.
The IDF believes the six hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23 – an Israeli-American – Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Carmel Gat, 39, Almog Sarusi, 26, Alex Lubnov, 26, and Master Sergeant Ori Danino, 25, were killed 10 days ago – around a day before the IDF discovered the tunnel.
‘Several of the six are assessed to have defended themselves and struggled with those who shot them,’ it adds.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among six hostages whose bodies were recovered on August 31. He was among victims taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 massacre
Eden Yerushalmi was also abducted from the Nova music festival and weighed just 80 pounds when the IDF discovered her body, her family were informed recently
Ori Danino was taken captive by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival on October 7
The report further states that in the narrow tunnel, there were no air vents which left the hostages struggling for breath.
There were no toilets or showers, meaning the hostages – who were snatched by Hamas during the October 7 massacre – were left washing with the water from the bottles they drank from.
Other harrowing details included that protein bars were found scattered within the cramped tunnel as the hostages were fed very little food.
Yerushalmi, 24, weighed just 80 pounds when his body was recovered.
IDF officers also found a generator and small torch which did not have much power, along with a chess set, pens, and notepads which they then passed on to the respective families, according to the report.
Members of one of the family, who were not named, told Channel 1 that the hostages ‘did everything to survive in impossible circumstances… and in the end Hamas murdered them.
‘Their only demand was that the government save them, and the government failed in its mission,’ they aded.
Channel 13 also revealed that forensic findings showed evidence that ‘Hersh, Ori, Alex and Almog defended Eden and Carmel’ while they were trapped in the narrow tunnel.
The bodies of the six hostages were recovered on August 31 from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area and formally identified in Israel, a military statement said at the time.
An initial autopsy on September 1 revealed they had been shot multiple times at close range just two or three days earlier.
it was also revealed that three of the six hostages who were found dead in the Gaza tunnel were set to be released in a prisoner exchange deal the following day, a senior Hamas official claimed.
‘Some of the names of the captives announced as found by the (Israeli) occupier… were part of the list of hostages to be released that Hamas had approved’ in a potential exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, the unnamed official stated.
Almog Sarusi, 26, was enjoying the rave when Hamas terrorists attacked
Carmel Gat was visiting her family in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7
Alex Lobanov, 26, was the head barman at the festival
The aftermath of an attack on the Supernova music Festival by Hamas gunmen, October 9
‘Hersh, Carmel and Eden were all on the list of hostages set to be released in the July 2 ceasefire proposal presented by Biden. We could have saved them,’ the official said.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said their Hamas murderers shot them dead ‘in cold blood. They riddled them with bullets… They shot them in the back of the head’.
They were among 251 hostages seized during the surprise October 7 attack on a music festival in southern Israel by Palestinian militants.
Around 100 hostages remain in captivity, dozens of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog took to X, formerly Twitter, at the beginning of the month to pay tribute to those that devastatingly lost their lives.
‘The heart of an entire nation is shattered to pieces… On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart, and apologize for failing to bring them home safely’.
Herzog also defiantly confirmed that Israel will continue to ‘fight relentlessly’ against Hamas.
‘The blood of our brothers cries out to us. Our sisters and brothers are still there enduring Hell. The supreme covenant between the state and its citizens is to ensure their safety. We have the sacred and urgent mission to bring them home,’ he ended the post.
The brutal Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7 when the Palestinian Islamist group attacked an Israeli music festival in southern Israel, killing 1,200 and snatching around 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
At least 40,691 Palestinians have now been killed and 94,060 injured in Israel’s counter offensives in Gaza, the enclave’s Hamas-run health ministry said in a statement last month.
