The Israeli military said there was a “high probability” that the three hostages found dead in a tunnel late last year were killed by mistake in a strike that also killed Hamas’s northern Gaza brigade commander, Ahmed al-Ghandour, in November.
Last week, Israel Defense Forces officials informed the families of Colonel Nick Bezer and Sgt. Ron Sherman, both 19, and French-Israeli civilian Elia Toledano, 28, who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, that a thorough investigation revealed that their loved ones lost their lives while participating in combat in Gaza. As a result of the actions of the IDF.
Their bodies were recovered on December 14 from a tunnel in Jabalia, but the most likely cause of death was only recently determined, according to the military.
“The investigation results indicate that the three were most likely killed as a result of an IDF airstrike. This is a very likely assessment given all the data, but it is not possible to determine the circumstances of their deaths with certainty,” the statement said.
The families were initially told that the hostages had been killed by their Hamas captors, and in January the IDF rejected Hamas’s assertions that they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.
The results of the investigation could increase pressure on the government to reach a deal to return the remaining hostages held by Hamas.
The soldiers’ parents have been demanding a full explanation of the circumstances of their sons’ deaths since their bodies were discovered. “We have to find out the truth about everything,” they said. Mayan Sherman“Even if the truth is: We had to kill them,” Sherman’s mother told the Wall Street Journal in May.
The November airstrike targeted al-Ghandour, who was hiding in a tunnel. An IDF investigation at the time concluded that the military was unaware that hostages were in the area at the time of the strike.
The Israeli military said that “at the time of the strike, the IDF had no information about the presence of hostages in the targeted compound. Furthermore, there was information indicating that they were located elsewhere, and therefore the area was not classified as an area where hostages were suspected.”
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