The Israeli military has confirmed the deaths of four more hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attack on a music festival.
Nadav Popplewell, 51, Yoram Metzger, 80, Amiram Cooper, 84, and Chaim Peri, 79, died several months ago while held by Hamas in the Khan Younis area. The times of Israel reported.
Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, said the four men died together when the Israel Defense Forces were operating in Khan Younis earlier this year, although he did not offer a definitive cause of death.
“We are checking all options,” Hagari said. “There are many questions.”
Hamas claimed in May that Popplewell died as a result of an airstrike, but has yet to provide evidence. PBS reported. Months earlier, the terrorist organization Al-Qassam Brigades claimed that Peri, Cooper and Metzger were among seven hostages killed in an Israeli airstrike. NBC reported.
Amiram Cooper, left, and Chaim Peri, right, were part of the same kibbutz just a mile from Gaza.
Yoram Metzger, 80, and Nadav Popplewell, 51, were among hundreds of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.
Amiram Cooper has a son named Rotem who lives in San Diego, because while the attacks in Israel were taking place, Rotem discovered that his father and mother Nurit, 79, were kidnapped by Hamas.
Amiram and Nurit had called Nir Oz, a kibbutz about a mile from Gaza, their home for seven decades, being among the first to settle there. ABC San Diego reported last October.
Rotem added that his parents told him that they locked themselves in a bomb shelter in their house.
“They told me they basically locked themselves in that room, but there was no way to close the door,” he said.
Not long after, he was unable to locate his parents, so he flew to Israel as soon as he could, arriving three days later.
Amiram Cooper (second from right) and Nurit Cooper (red shirt) pictured with their family.
Amiram appears in the photo with his grandson.
Amiram and Nurit appear together in the photo. The couple was kidnapped from their home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz on the outskirts of Gaza.
Rotem found bullet holes in the door leading to his parents’ bomb shelter, but found no bloodstains, giving him hope that they were still alive.
Amiram and Nurit were held in the same underground room along with five other kibbutz residents, Rotem said. The times of Israel.
Nurit was released on October 23 and is still recovering at home with her family.
Metzger, Cooper and Peri, all of whom are in their late 80s or older, appeared in a Hamas propaganda video in December where they can be heard pleading with Israel: “Don’t let us grow old here.”
Peri, a resident of Nir Oz along with Cooper and his wife Nurit, explained in the video that he was being held with other elderly hostages with chronic illnesses, and that they were all living in very harsh conditions.
Amiram and Nurit pictured with their son, Rotem, sitting next to his father.
Popplewell, a British-Israeli, appears in a Hamas terrorist video. Hamas confirmed he was dead just hours after posting the 11-second clip.
‘You have to free us from here. The cost doesn’t matter. We do not want to be victims as a direct result of IDF military airstrikes. Release us without conditions. Don’t let us grow old here,’ Peri said in Hebrew.
Popplewell, Hamas’s fourth victim, was a British-Israeli citizen who also appeared in a Hamas propaganda video broadcast in early May.
Just three hours after releasing the chilling 11-second clip of Popplewell, who was seriously injured but alive, Hamas confirmed he was dead.
Of about 130 Israeli hostages remaining in the Gaza Strip, about 85 are believed to be alive, PBS reported.
This new information comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected President Joe Biden’s ceasefire agreement and vowed to continue the war that has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians.