The six dead hostages recovered from the Gaza Strip over the weekend were killed 48 to 72 hours before their autopsy, meaning between Thursday and Friday morning, the Health Ministry said Sunday.
The ministry added that an examination carried out by Abu Kabir Forensic Institute found that all six hostages were shot multiple times from close range, indicating they were executed.
The IDF had said that Hamas terrorists murdered the hostages relatively shortly before troops located their bodies on Saturday afternoon in a tunnel in Rafah.
The hostages brought back were Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi.
On Sunday morning, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Herzi Halevi visited the site where the bodies were found and held an assessment at the scene.
Halevi was joined by the head of the IDF Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, and hostage point-man Maj. Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon.
Channel 12 reported that security officials fear that Hamas executed the six hostages due to the terror group’s concerns that a hostage who was rescued alive from a nearby tunnel last week would divulge details about where the other captives were being held.
Hostage Farhan al-Qadi, 52, was safely rescued by IDF special forces from Hamas captivity in one of the terror group’s tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip. He was found alone after his captives fled.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said earlier that the six were “brutally murdered” by Hamas shortly before troops arrived.
“According to an initial assessment… they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short while before we reached them. They were abducted alive on the morning of October 7 by the Hamas terror group,” Hagari said in a press conference.
“Their bodies were found during the fighting in Rafah, in a tunnel, about a kilometer away from the tunnel from which we rescued Farhan al-Qadi a few days ago,” he said.
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