Several of the six Israeli hostages who were killed by their Hamas captors in Gaza last month attempted to fight off their killers, the IDF has told their families.
Israel’s Channel 12 news reported that IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari briefed some of the devastated families of the six cruelly abducted dead on the details of their captivity and how they were executed.
Hagari briefed the families on what are believed to be the initial findings of the IDF investigation into the brutal killings, and showed them footage taken from inside the Rafah tunnel where they were taken hostage and killed.
The IDF believes the six hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23 (an Israeli-American), Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Carmel Gat, 39, Almog Sarusi, 26, Alex Lubnov, 26, and Staff Sergeant Ori Danino, 25, were killed 10 days ago, approximately one day before the IDF discovered the tunnel.
“It is estimated that several of the six defended themselves and fought with those who shot them,” he added.
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was among six hostages whose bodies were recovered on August 31. He was among the victims taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 massacre.
Eden Yerushalmi was also abducted at the Nova music festival and weighed just 80 pounds when the Israel Defense Forces discovered her body, her family was recently told.
Ori Danino was taken prisoner by Hamas at the Nova Music Festival on October 7.
The report also says there were no air vents in the narrow tunnel, making it difficult for the hostages to breathe.
There were no toilets or showers, so the hostages (who were kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 massacre) had to wash themselves with water from bottles they drank from.
Other harrowing details included that protein bars were found scattered inside the narrow tunnel while the hostages were given very little food.
Yerushalmi, 24, weighed just 80 pounds when her body was recovered.
IDF officers also found a generator and a small flashlight that did not have much power, along with a chess set, pens and notebooks that they later delivered to the respective families, the report said.
Members of one family, who were not identified, told Channel 1 that the hostages “did everything they could to survive in impossible circumstances… and in the end Hamas killed them.”
“Their only demand was that the government save them, and the government failed in its mission,” they added.
Channel 13 also revealed that forensic findings showed evidence that ‘Hersh, Ori, Alex and Almog defended Eden and Carmel’ while they were trapped in the narrow tunnel.
The bodies of the six hostages were recovered on August 31 from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area and formally identified in Israel“, said a military statement at the time.
An initial autopsy performed on September 1 revealed they had been shot multiple times at point-blank range just two or three days earlier.
It was also revealed that three of the six hostages found dead in the Gaza tunnel were to be released in a prisoner exchange deal the following day, a senior Hamas official said.
“Some of the names of the captives announced as having been found by the (Israeli) occupier… were part of the list of hostages to be released that Hamas had approved” in a potential exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, the unnamed official said.
Almog Sarusi, 26, was enjoying the party when Hamas terrorists attacked
Carmel Gat was visiting her family in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7.
Alex Lobanov, 26, was the festival’s head bartender.
The aftermath of the attack on the Supernova music festival by Hamas gunmen on October 9
“Hersh, Carmel and Eden were on the list of hostages to be released in Biden’s July 2 ceasefire proposal. We could have saved them,” the official said.
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas assassins shot them dead “in cold blood. They riddled them with bullets… they shot them in the back of the head.”
They were among 251 hostages taken during the surprise Oct. 7 attack on a music festival in southern Israel by Palestinian militants.
Around 100 hostages remain in captivity, dozens of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog took to X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in devastating ways.
“The heart of an entire nation is shattered into pieces… On behalf of the State of Israel, I embrace their families with all my heart and apologize for not being able to bring them home safe and sound.”
Herzog also defiantly confirmed that Israel will continue to “fight relentlessly” against Hamas.
“The blood of our brothers cries out to us. Our brothers and sisters are still there suffering hell. The supreme pact between the State and its citizens is to guarantee their safety. We have the sacred and urgent mission of bringing them home,” the message concluded.
The brutal war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7 when the Palestinian Islamist group attacked an Israeli music festival in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking some 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
At least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 wounded in Israel’s counter-offensives in Gaza, the Hamas-run enclave’s health ministry said in a statement last month.