Ex-IDF spokesman: Israeli military dug up graves in Gaza to search for hostages’ bodies

A former Israel Defense Forces spokesman says that soldiers have dug up some graves in Gaza in order to confirm that the bodies of hostages were not buried there.

“They are looking for the bodies of Israeli hostages in the graveyards. They have been opening areas where there are fresh graves in order to look for bodies of Israeli hostages,” Jonathan Conricus tells CNN.

Conricus was not speaking to the outlet in his capacity as a military spokesman, but instead as a Middle East expert.

“That is how low Israeli troops have to go in order to try to find Israeli hostages. There are still 136 hostages in Gaza. Some of them, probably half, are presumed dead and it is the job of the IDF to find live hostages, and if not possible, then dead,” he says.

“Even in [Gaza’s] Shifa Hospital, Israeli troops had to go into the morgue and look for Israeli bodies because there was intelligence suggesting Hamas had taken Israelis and kept them at the Shifa Hosptial in storage. So we had to go in and do DNA testing,” he says.

“That is what is necessary when you deal with an enemy like Hamas. When they go so low to barter with bodies and deal in bodies, then at the end of the day, the IDF needs to get them back,” he says.

“These people need to be buried, and they need to be buried properly back home. And even if it means bad optics, Israel has the obligation to do so,” Conricus says.

In addition to the search for hostages’ bodies, the military has said that it found at least one Hamas attack tunnel underneath a Gaza cemetery.

2.2.24 1030 PM ET CNN Newsnight Anchor, Abby Phillip @abbydphillip w/ Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Defense of Democracies @FDD
and former spokesperson for @IDF , Jonathan Conricus @jconricus 11 minute view pic.twitter.com/WqZK4oPuWJ

— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) February 3, 2024