Israel on Wednesday carried out a daring mission to recover the bodies of kidnapped and murdered hostages and released an analysis concluding that six other hostages were killed by Hamas rather than by air strikes.
Hamas has often claimed that Israeli hostages who died in captivity were killed by Israeli airstrikes. The purpose of such claims is to deter Hamas from air strikes against terrorists and to demoralize the Israeli public. Such careless attacks have occurred many times, including in December last year when Israeli soldiers mistakenly mistook three fleeing hostages in northern Gaza who were attempting to signal them to be terrorists who had lured the soldiers into a trap. I shot him dead.
However, in the cases of Yagev Buchstab, Alexander Dansieg, Abraham Mander, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Poppelwell, and Chaim Perry, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) concluded that Hamas likely executed them. In what was published reportIDF stated:
Pathological examinations found gunshot wounds on the bodies of the hostages, but no gunshot wounds were found on the bodies of the terrorists. Due to the long elapsed time, it was not possible to determine with complete certainty the exact cause of the hostage's death or the exact timing of the firing.
It is very likely that their deaths were related to a strike near where they were being held. According to the most likely scenario, the terrorists shot the hostages dead shortly before the attack. However, it is also possible that the hostages were shot dead by other terrorists after their deaths. It is even possible that the hostages were killed before the attack in the area.
At the time of the attack, the Israel Defense Forces had no information, let alone any suspicion, that the hostages were in or near the underground facility. If such information had been available, the strike would not have been carried out.
Nadav and Yagev were abducted from Kibbutz Nirim. The remaining four hostages were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The hostage whose body was recovered by the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet, or Shabak) on Wednesday was Itai Svakshi. He was abducted from Kibbutz Beeri on October 7, 2023 and held captive for several months along with Yossi Shalabi and Noa Al-Ghamani. Shalabi was executed like Svirski. Al-Ghamani was rescued.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised the military in a statement and expressed his condolences to Svirksy's family.
There are currently 100 Israeli hostages left in Gaza, and at least a third of them are believed to have died.
Joel B. Pollack is a senior editor at Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM ET (4:00 PM to 7:00 PM PT) on Sirius XM Patriot. he is the author of Agenda: What should President Trump do in his first 100 days?available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of Trumpian Virtues: Lessons and Legacy of the Donald Trump Presidencynow available on Audible. He is the recipient of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter @joelpolak.
