The Israeli military has admitted that one of its own airstrikes is likely responsible for killing three Israeli captives whose bodies were recovered from Gaza last year, confirming what Hamas officials had said about the hostages’ deaths at the time.
In a release on Sunday, the Israeli military said that an investigation into the deaths of the three captives found there was a “high probability” that they were killed by an Israeli strike carried out on November 10. This finding is based on the location of their bodies in relation to that of the strike and analysis of the strike itself. The military claims the strike targeted and killed a Hamas commander.
Two of the captives were soldiers, Corporal Nick Beiser and Sergeant Ron Sherman. The military also recovered the body of Eliya Toledano. They were all captured amid the October 7 attack, and their bodies were recovered in December.
At the time, Israeli forces told the captives’ families that they were killed by Hamas. But the results of the investigation confirms Hamas’s assertion that they were killed by the Israeli military.
Israeli forces have killed numerous hostages amid their genocide in Gaza, and released hostages have said that their top fear while in captivity was that they would be killed by Israeli strikes.
In December, Israeli forces shot and killed three Israeli captives who were traveling together in northern Gaza. Though the captives were shirtless and waving a white flag, Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. The military later claimed that the soldiers acted correctly to the best of their understanding, as they interpreted the captives’ cries for help as a ruse.
These captives could have been alive today if Israel had agreed to ceasefire agreements early on. Just days after Israel’s genocidal assault of Gaza commenced, Hamas had offered to release all of the captives if the Israeli military didn’t enter Gaza, former political adviser and leader of an advocacy organization for the captives’ families Haim Rubinstein told Times of Israel earlier this year.
Since then, Israel has rejected ceasefire deal after ceasefire deal, with Israeli leaders openly expressing their contempt for the very idea of stopping their genocide in Gaza at any point. There is widespread unrest among Israelis for the government’s failure to secure a hostage release, but Israeli leaders’ actions in the ceasefire negotiations have made it clear that a hostage release is not a top priority for them.
Just earlier this month, Israeli media reported that three captives whose bodies were recently recovered from Gaza were actually slated for release in a ceasefire deal discussed in July. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively single handedly killed that deal, introducing a number of last-minute demands that he knew Hamas and other countries’ negotiators would reject — like a permanent Israeli occupation of Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Additionally, Israeli media have reported this week that Netanyahu is reportedly considering dismissing his defense minister Yoav Gallant and replacing him with a political leader whose party has helped cement Netanyahu’s power amid the genocide. Gallant has been a critic of Netanyahu, and recently called for a ceasefire after being in favor of the genocidal invasion last year.
Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel continue its genocide, even at the expense of the lives of Israeli captives, has led many in Israeli society to conclude that Netanyahu doesn’t care about the captives; rather, he relishes in their deaths as new opportunities to demonize Hamas and justify his genocide of Palestinians, as some commentators have noted.
It is clear, then, that Israel’s main goal in Gaza is death and occupation. UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese has warned that Israel is on track to wipe out the entire population of Gaza if it continues along this path, and that the true death toll of Palestinians could be estimated at 335,500 as of this month — with no end to Israel’s invasion in sight.
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