JAKARTA – The Israeli Army (IDF) said its representatives had informed the families of the four hostages held in Gaza that they “were dead.”
The IDF said it had informed the families Chaim Peri, Oram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Nadav Popplewell who were kidnapped in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, that they were no longer alive.
The IDF said the decision to announce the four hostages killed was based on intelligence and confirmed by an expert committee of the Health Ministry, in coordination with the Ministry of Religious Services and the head of the Israeli Rabi.
The status of their deaths in Hamas detention is still under investigation, according to the IDF, which said it used “various methods to gather information about the hostages still in the Gaza Strip.” .
The IDF’s main spokesperson, Young Admiral Daniel Hadari, said: “The people whose relatives were killed a few months ago during Hamas detention in Gaza and their bodies are still in Hamas custody.” . We judge that the four of them were killed together in the Khan Younis area during an operation against Hamas there,” he said.
In May, Hamas said Popplewell, an Israeli-English citizen, died from injuries sustained in an attack by an Israeli warplane at his place of arrest a month earlier.
CNN was unable to independently verify Hamas’ claims.
More than 250 people were entangled and held hostage in Gaza during Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, but more than 100 people were freed during a ceasefire last year.
The Israeli prime minister’s office estimates that there are still 124 hostages, alive and dead, remaining in Gaza – four of them kidnapped before October 7. Of the other 120 hostages taken hostage on October 7, Israel now estimates that 41 people are dead.
Israeli Defense Minister and National Union Party Chairman Benny Gantz expressed condolences to their families who were declared dead on Monday (June 3), saying on his Telegram channel that the news was “a painful reminder of our greatest moral responsibility to continue to fight against terrorism and to do everything to bring back all the hostages as quickly as possible, even at very expensive costs.”
Tag: israel konflik israel palestina palestina gaza international
