In more bad news for the Netanyahu government amid large protests led by hostage victims' families, Israel's military has belatedly issued the damning results of a formal probe into the deaths of three Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered back in December.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) now admit the three were "most likely" killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike. This comes after months of prior denials and is sure to fuel the anti-Netanyahu protests movement further. The IDF issued its findings with a 'high probability'.
Two soldiers - Corporal Nick Beiser and Sergeant Ron Sherman – and and civilian man, Eliya Toledano, had been kidnapped by the Hamas raids into southern Israel on Oct. 7.
They were being held in tunnels underneath the Gaza Strip when on November 10, 2023 airstrikes conducted by Israeli Air Force jets resulted in their deaths, the IDF has described.
The military says it was unaware of their presence in the vicinity during the bombing raid. "It is estimated that the three were most likely killed as a by-product of an IDF airstrike, during the assassination of the commander of the northern division of Hamas, Ahmed Andor, on November 10, 2023," an official statement said.
"This is an estimate with a high probability in view of all the data, but it is not possible to determine with certainty the circumstances of their death," the IDF continued. "This determination is based on the location where their bodies were found in relation to the impact of the attack," as well as intelligence assessments. The families of the victims were informed of the internal military investigations findings on Sunday.
Qatar-based Al Jazeera, which is banned by Israel, has pointed out that the findings will prove deeply embarrassing for the Israeli government and military at a tense time of domestic turmoil and division:
"There have been a series of significant intelligence and security failures that the military has gone through throughout this war, the most notable of them back in December when the Israeli army shot and killed three captives in the Gaza Strip," she said.
Salhut said the latest admission by the military "is not being received quite well because there are families of captives calling for a deal, fearing this exact type of thing."
"It is certainly an embarrassment on all scales, not just politically but security-wise as well, that the army made this admission so many months later."
There are some 100 captives still believed to be in the Strip, but many of them are feared dead. Families also fear that a number of captives have been killed by Israeli 'friendly fire' in the chaos of urban fighting - and are angered that a second-round major hostage deal with Hamas has not been achieved.
Earlier this month Hamas warned that it would execute hostages if IDF forces get close to their locations. This appears to have happened in the case of six deceased recovered earlier in September. Before they were shot multiple times by Palestinian militants, the six were held in horrific underground conditions and in small confines.
