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(CNN) — The Israeli military says that three Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza in December were “most likely” killed as a result of an Israeli airstrike.
The hostages were two soldiers - Corporal Nick Beiser and Sergeant Ron Sherman – and and civilian man, Eliya Toledano.
Recovering the hostages captured by Hamas on October 7 is one of the main goals of Israel’s campaign in Gaza and the government is under intense domestic pressure to secure their release.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the families of all three were informed Sunday after the conclusion of the investigation, which involved intelligence and operational research efforts and considerations of the security of the hostages.
“It is estimated that the three were most likely killed as a by-product of an IDF airstrike, during the assassination of the commander of the northern division of Hamas, Ahmed Andor, on November 10, 2023.”
“This is an estimate with a high probability in view of all the data, but it is not possible to determine with certainty the circumstances of their death,” the IDF said. “This determination is based on the location where their bodies were found in relation to the impact of the attack,” as well as intelligence findings and pathological reports.
“The investigation shows that the three hostages were held in the tunnel complex where Andor operated. At the time of the attack, the IDF did not have information about the presence of hostages in the compound that was attacked, and moreover, there was information that indicated their location elsewhere.”
The IDF said that throughout the war, it has not attacked in areas where there are indications or suspicions about the presence of hostages.
The bodies of the three hostages were retrieved from the tunnel where Andor had been staying on December 14. Later that month Hamas claimed that the three hostages were “killed by IDF weapons.”
A total of 101 hostages are still being held in Gaza, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). 35 of those are believed to be dead.
Hostage release efforts are ongoing and gained new urgency earlier this month with the discovery of the bodies of six hostages in a tunnel beneath the southern Gaza city of Rafah, including the Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
US officials are trying to get both sides to agree to a deal first laid out by US President Joe Biden in May. The three-phase proposal pairs the release of hostages with a “full and complete ceasefire.”
Since then talks have stuttered and both sides have pointed to what they see as glaring holes in the framework, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that Israel’s forces will never leave the stretch along the Egypt-Gaza border known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
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