Bullet wounds found in hostage bodies recovered from Gaza

The Israeli military says bullets found in the bodies of six hostages recovered recently in Gaza indicate they were killed during an IDF operation near where they were being held.

Yoram Metzger and Abraham Munder are among six hostages whose bodies were recently recovered in Gaza. Picture: AFP.

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Bullet wounds have been found in the bodies of six hostages retrieved from a Gaza tunnel earlier this week, indicating that they were shot by their captors, the Israeli military has confirmed.

The bodies of Yagev Buchshtab, Alexander Dancyg, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popplewell, Chaim Perry and Avraham Munder were found on Monday night in the southern Gaza Strip, the military said the following day, though it was not clear what had caused their deaths in captivity.

(Clockwork from top L) Yoram Metzger, Abraham Munder, Yagev Buchshtab, Nadav Popplewell, Alex Dancyg, and Chaim Peri were apparently killed by their captors. Picture: AFP.

A military spokesman said subsequent examinations found “bullets in the bodies of the six hostages” recovered from the site raided by Israeli forces in the Khan Yunis area.

“The investigation into the circumstances of their deaths continues,” the spokesman added.

Israel’s Channel 12 TV reports that the military believes the hostages were executed by their captors during an IDF operation near where they were being held, with their guards possibly believing a rescue operation was underway.

The six dead hostages were among 251 people seized by Palestinian militants during Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

Of those, 105 remain in the Palestinian territory, including 34 the military says are dead.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the six “were killed while our forces were operating in Khan Yunis”.

Relatives of numerous hostages who died in captivity have said the military had informed them that their loves ones may have been killed by Israeli operations and bombardment in Gaza.

The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,199 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.