Itay Svirsky, 40, was the therapist he loved with philosophy. Eden Yerushalmi, 24, trained to become a Pilates instructor. Alex Lobanov, 32, the father of three, never met his youngest child.
They were among the 41 hostages Hamas and his allies had been given to them during the attack on Israel, according to the analysis of the New York Times by forensic reports and military investigations of their deaths, as well as interviews with more than a dozen Israeli soldiers and officials, higher regional officials and seven native host relatives.
Some killed Hamas, some of the Israeli fire, some of their death unknown. Losses – and most importantly, the scale of them – are now at the center of anxious discussion in Israeli society about whether more people could have been returned alive if the truce was before.
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, has long claimed that only a military force could force Hamas to release hostages. Mr. Netanyahu’s opponents claimed that the longer the war, the more likely the hostages would execute Hamas or kill in Israeli strikes.
The debate has received several resonance in recent days because the country faces the appearance of returning to war from the failure of a recent truce. The Israeli government recently acted a procedure, proposing a new frame, which Hamas immediately refused, which required a seven -week extension during which the group would release half of the living hostages and return the remains of half of the deceased.
Of the 59 hostages still believed in Gaza, the Israeli government said they were only 24 alive. The fear and uncertainty over their destinies were caught on the national psyche.
At the end of February, thousands of Israelis lined up the streets with the funeral route Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were abducted during the attack on Israel and killed in Gaza. Many held the signs that were “sorry”, an apology for not doing enough to save them.
Out of 251 people abducted during a raid under the guidance of Hamas who started the war in October 2023, more than 130 were exchanged alive for Palestinian detainees. The Israeli army has retrieved the corpses of more than 40 others, many of which were taken to Gaza during the attack. Hamas handed over eight bodies as part of the latest fire interruption agreement.
Several hostages were almost certainly killed in the first days of the war, before it was possible to seal the truce, according to two Israeli officials. But many others died of short first detainees in November 2023, and the fighting continued in the war that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
All soldiers and officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive findings.
Although Israel and Hamas approached another interruption agreement in July, the conversations collapsed, and it took another five months to reach an agreement, one mostly similar to the one discussed in the summer. Mr. Netanyahua’s political rivals and some hostage relatives said the months of additional fights, while they degraded Hamas and his allies in Lebanon and Iran, led to the death of more hostages and eventually failed to beat Hamas.
“We could bring home more hostages – earlier and for a smaller price,” Yoav Gallant, Israeli Minister of Defense until November, said in a television interview Last month.
While Mr. Netanyahu’s office refused to comment, he blamed Hamas for a long time for failure in tribute. “Only by continuing military pressure, until the complete victory, will the release of all our hostages,” the Prime Minister said last year.
The Israeli army refused to comment on the specific circumstances in which hostages were killed, but in a statement he said he had performed surgery with numerous precautions taken to protect the prisoners.
The statement added that “she expresses deep sadness for every incident in which hostages were killed during their captivity and does everything in his power to prevent such phenomena.” The army also said that she regularly updates the hostage families about the status of their loved ones.
Seven hostages were executed by their abductors as the Israeli soldiers approached, and four others died in Israeli air attacks, according to Israeli officials and public findings of military investigations.
Three hostages were killed by Israeli soldiers who mistaken them for the Palestinian militants, the Israeli army said publicly; One is shot in a cross -fire. The circumstances around the death of 26 others remain unconvincing.
In some cases, there are conflicting claims, such as in the case of the Bibas family. Hamas said the three were killed in an Israeli strike, but the Israeli army said they had been killed.
No side offered evidence for its conclusions. After the body test, Dr. Chen Kugel, director of the Israeli National Forensic Institute, said in a statement that there was no evidence that they had been killed in bombing.
Some cousins of hostages blame Hamas for these deaths. The canceled husband of Nira Sharabi was killed in the Israeli air attack, according to a military investigation. In an interview, she said that Hamas was in the end “because they took him and put him there.”
Others believe that the Government took more care of the fight against Hamas than they saved their loved ones.
“The Government cheated on the public, reducing the risks that war were hostages,” Merav Svirsky said.
Her brother survived the Israeli air attack only to be killed for days later by his Hamas Captor, according to three Israeli officials and Mrs. Sversky, whom the army met.
“Captor killed my brother. But the reason why he shot him was a military campaign,” Mrs. Sversky added.
Killed in air attacks
When Israel hit the Hamas Underground Center in November 2023, the strike killed two Hamas commanders, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, the main Hamas, which Israel said he helped organize an attack in October.
A month later, the Israeli infantry sees the location of the strike discovered the bodies Of the three unintentional victims: Israeli, abducted from the Music Festival on October 7th and two soldiers trapped in a nearby military base.
The army tried to prevent damage to hostages. During the war, intelligence officials collected information about each capture and kept records of their last known place, according to more than 12 officials.
But the army could not specify where many hostages, especially in the first weeks of the war, when the information was scarce, and the air bombing were in their most intense, according to three military officials. If there were no clear indications of the hostage location, the Air Force managed to hit, as in an attack on the al-Ghandour.
After ending up in March 2023 that the air attack had killed hostages, the army had not informed its relatives for months, according to two defense officials. The army refused to comment on the incident.
In January 2024, the army allowed relatives to see the forensic report, which The Times later examined, which suggested that men may have stifled harmful gases.
Maayan Sherman, the mother of one of the victims, soon began a public campaign to pressure the army to admit that the gases were aired during an explosion caused by Israeli rocket.
Only September the army admit Men were killed in one of their own air attacks. Did not reveal the exact cause of death.
Executed Hamas
At the end of August, Israeli commandos advanced through the city in southern Gaza, hoping to find Hamas’s main leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, according to five Israeli defense officials.
While hunted by Mr. Sinci, the Israeli army estimated that people were potentially maintained in the tunnels in the same neighborhood. The commandos confirmed the presence of at least one hostage on August 27, when they discovered a lively trapped in the tunnel, Farhan al-Qadi, Arabic Israel.
Fearing that their presence could endanger other hostages, the forces initially suspended their mission, according to a military investigation.
The area was already previously labeled as limited for surgery on military tickets, which the Times examined. Three officials said that the army that operated in the area risked their lives, since the militants were ordered to kill prisoners if it was extinguished.
Finally, the need for Mr. Sinci’s hunt took a higher priority, according to four defense officers.
After a daily break, the commandos searched on August 28.
On August 31, instead of Mr. Sinwar, the commandos discovered the bodies of six hostages killed, killed and abandoned in a narrow tunnel.
Hamas issued conflicting messages shortly after the incident – one official blamed Israel for the murder, while the other strongly suggested that they were killed by Hamas fighters.
The military investigation later concluded that they were killed by their guards as the Israeli forces approached.
Mr. Sinwar was eventually killed in the second operation on October 16th.
Killed while trying to rescue
One night in December 2023, The detachment of Israeli commandos thought they were at the height of the rescue of a female hostage. The department broke into the Hamas hiding place in Gaza, expecting to find an Israeli woman in a separate room from his abductors, according to three Israeli officials.
Instead, they found themselves in the fight against a Hamas militants. The woman was nowhere in sight. Without the Israeli intelligence officers realized, it seemed that Hamas replaced her for male hostages, Sahara Baruch, according to officials.
Soon Mr. Baruch was dead – killed in Crossfire, who also injured Israeli soldiers, the officials said. It is unclear whether Mr. Baruch was killed by friendly fire or his kidnappers; Hamas later posted a video of his body.
Mr. Baruch’s remains are still in Gaza.
Johnatan Reiss Contributing to reporting
