Israel conducted a daring mission Wednesday to retrieve the body of a hostage who was kidnapped and murdered, and published an analysis that concluded that six other hostages were murdered by Hamas, not killed by an airstrike.
Hamas has often claimed that Israeli hostages who have died in captivity were killed by Israeli airstrikes. The purpose of such claims is to dissuade airstrikes on Hamas terrorists, and to demoralize the Israeli public. Such inadvertent strikes have occurred, and last December Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot and killed three escaped hostages in northern Gaza who were trying to signal to them, and who were mistaken for terrorists luring soldiers into a trap.
However, in the cases of Yagev Buchstab, Alexander Dancyg, Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Poppelwell, and Haim Perry, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) concluded that Hamas had likely executed them. In a published report, the IDF said:
The pathological examination found indications of gunshots on the bodies of the hostages, while no gunshot wounds were found on the bodies of the terrorists. Due to the extended time that had passed, it was not possible to determine with complete certainty the precise cause of death of the hostages or the exact timing of the gunfire.
It is highly probable that their deaths were related to the strike near the location where they were held. According to the most plausible scenario, the terrorists shot the hostages close to the time of the strike. However, it is also possible that the hostages were shot by other terrorists post-mortem; it is even possible that the hostages were killed prior to the strike in the area.
At the time of the strike, the IDF had no information, not even a suspicion, that the hostages were in the underground compound or its vicinity. Had such information been available, the strike would not have been carried out.
Nadav and Yagev were abducted from Kibbutz Nirim; the other four hostages were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
The hostage whose body was retrieved Wednesday by the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet, or Shabak) was 38-year-old Itai Svirksy. He was abducted from Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023, and was held in captivity for months with Yossi Sharabi and with Noa Argamani. Sharabi was executed, as was Svirsky; Argamani was rescued.
In a statement, Israeli President Isaac Herzog praised the military and extended his condolences to Svirksy’s family:
There are now 100 Israeli hostages left in Gaza, at least one-third of whom are thought to be dead.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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