The IDF confirmed publicly on Tuesday that it mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages along with Hamas northern Gaza brigade chief Ahmed Ghandour in November, which, until now, officials had only hinted to.
Back in December, the IDF revealed finding five hostage bodies, three of which related to the incident in question.
Unlike the IDF’s usual briefing, it did not blame Hamas for their deaths and dropped hints that its airstrike might have killed the three hostages but said it would not confirm anything until after a forensics probe.
Overnight between Monday and Tuesday, the IDF finally confirmed that it had killed the three when Channel 12 reported the military had passed on the information to the hostage families but was withholding an announcement from the public.
The IDF disputed Channel 12’s characterization of a cover-up but has not provided a coherent explanation as to why it did not publicize the probe results to the public.
Already in December, the IDF disclosed the background behind its finding of five bodies of hostages held by Hamas in a tunnel near Jabalya in northern Gaza.
New details on December incident
Around December 12, the IDF found two bodies, and three days later, it found three more bodies in another area nearby. At the time, it only announced the finding of the first two bodies.
The tunnel reached a size that included a large elevator, large rooms, and split into side rooms, such as command centers, medical stations, prayer rooms, and rooms for manufacturing weapons.
An IDF source said that finding the bodies required a mix of preexisting intelligence that headquarters possessed, along with intelligence collected in real time in the field, including forensic methods.
The tunnel was so large that though the bodies were all within one general tunnel area, they were in very different portions of the tunnel.
The five bodies include Eden Zakaria and Ziv Dado, who were announced on December 12, as well as Elia Toledano, Nik Beizer, and Ron Sherman – the three killed by the IDF with Ghandour.
Hamas had released a video of the other three hostages killed in Hamas captivity, whose bodies the IDF recovered, but without revealing the background.
In the video, the three hostages – Toledano, Beizer, and Sherman – were seen holding up pieces of paper with their names and personal information.
In a statement posted alongside the video, Hamas claimed that “they tried to keep them alive – but Netanyahu insisted on killing them.”
The video then added visual effects of shots and animated blood. They are shown in captivity smiling and speaking to each other.
The three were taken captive during the October 7 massacre.
In December, the IDF said it had delayed mentioning the other three bodies until forces in the area completed their operations.
Until then, there was concern that announcing more details would endanger the forces in the field who eventually used 13 tons of explosives to destroy the whole strategic tunnel, which took additional time.
In addition, whereas the IDF had said that Zakaria was killed on October 7 and her body was taken to Gaza, the IDF in December publicly did not give a clear conclusion about the timing of the death of the other hostages. Rather, IDF sources said forensic probes into that issue are still continuing.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this story.