Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Ori Danino, Eden Yerushalmi, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov, and Carmel Gat were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and found shot dead in a tunnel in southern Gaza on August 31. According to Israel's military (IDF), they had been executed with multiple shots at close range about two days before they were found.
On pictures and video clips released by IDF, what is claimed to be the place where the group was held captive can be seen. The tunnel is dark, filled with trash, and so low-ceilinged that the hostages could not stand upright, according to a report in Israeli Keshet 12.
On some pictures, large bloodstains can be seen on the floor.
Hard to breathe
The tunnel, about 20 meters deep, was sealed with metal doors and lacked any air vents. According to the channel's information, the families of the deceased have been told that they likely had difficulty breathing during their last time alive.
The humidity is extreme, says IDF's spokesman Daniel Hagari in a video allegedly recorded in the tunnel in question.
Besides protein bars, the military found very little food. One of the hostages, 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi, weighed only 36 kilos when she was found dead, according to The Times of Israel.
The sanitary conditions in the tunnel are described as non-existent. The hostages washed themselves in the same water they drank and relieved themselves in bottles and buckets.
Chessboard and pens
Based on, among other things, the amount of urine in the bottles, the military estimates that they had spent "weeks" in the tunnel before they were killed, reports Israeli media.
Among the things found in the tunnel were a generator and a flashlight that did not always work. The military also claims to have found weapons, a chessboard, clothes, hygiene items, pens, and notebooks. The notebooks have been handed over to the hostages' families, according to Keshet 12.
Nearly 100 hostages who were kidnapped during the Hamas terror attack on October 7 are believed to still be in Gaza. Over 30 of them are feared to be dead.
During the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, around 250 people, most of them Israelis, were taken hostage and brought to Gaza. There, they are being held by Hamas and other armed extremist groups.
During a week-long ceasefire in November, over 100 of the hostages were exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners. Several more Israelis have been freed by the country's military.
Currently, nearly 100 hostages are estimated to be still in Gaza. About a third of them are feared to be dead.
Since Israel declared war on Hamas after the terror attack in October, more than 41,000 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled strip.
