The six hostages whose bodies were recovered on Saturday were murdered by Hamas terrorists by several gunshots at point-blank range, the Health Ministry announced on Sunday.
According to forensic examinations by the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv, the six hostages are estimated to have been murdered in the 48 to 72 hours before the examination (on Thursday or early on Friday morning).
On Saturday night, the IDF and ISA located and recovered the bodies of the hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sergeant Ori Danino, from an underground tunnel in the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip and returned them to Israeli territory.
The six were abducted on October 7th, 2023, and were murdered in the past two days by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. They were found 20 meters underground without previous intelligence. The bodies were recovered a kilometer away from the tunnel where the hostage Farhan al-Qadi was located and rescued last week.
The six hostages whose bodies were found and returned on Saturday were found with gunshot wounds in the head and other locations. No evidence of torture was found.