From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 24, 2024
IDF probe finds troops acted ‘carefully’ in vicinity of 6 hostages murdered by Hamas in tunnel
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
An IDF investigation into the murder of six hostages by Hamas terrorists in southern Gaza’s Rafah in August has found that the military had acted carefully even though it had assessed that no captives were being held in the area.
Hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi were killed by their captors in a tunnel in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood on August 29, and were discovered by troops on August 31.
The military did not have any concrete or real-time intelligence on the six hostages being held there in the weeks before they were murdered, but had general indications that Israeli abductees could be in the neighborhood, and therefore had operated carefully above ground and even more so underground.
The possibility of hostages being held in Rafah at the time was seen as low-to-moderate, according to the IDF.
On August 27, the IDF rescued hostage Farhan al-Qadi from a tunnel in Tel Sultan. Al-Qadi had no information on other hostages in the area.
On August 29, at least two Hamas terrorists murdered the six hostages and left their bodies in the tunnel. The IDF believes that after spotting Israeli forces approaching the area, the Hamas terrorists guarding the hostages decided to execute them.
On August 30, the IDF said troops killed two Hamas gunmen who attempted to flee from the tunnel complex, who are believed by the military with high likelihood to be the captors who murdered the six hostages.
On August 31, the IDF decided to briefly halt its activities in Tel Sultan as it held a fresh assessment on the possibility of hostages in the area. Later that day, the bodies of the six were found.
The IDF’s probe found that it had awareness of possible hostages in the area, and despite the assessment being a low possibility, the military operated in a careful manner.
The IDF says it has drawn various conclusions from the incident, from a strategic level to a tactical level, including regarding the army’s intelligence.
Ultimately, the military acknowledges it failed to bring those hostages back home alive.
The IDF probe also confirms that forensic findings located in the area of the tunnel indicate that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was later killed nearby in October, was there. The IDF was unable to confirm if he was inside the tunnel at the same time the hostages were.
The findings of the probe were presented earlier today to the families of the six slain hostages.
The Times of Israel Community.