The IDF on Sunday published its probe, which confirms that it mistakenly killed three Israeli hostages along with Hamas northern Gaza brigade chief Ahmed Ghandour during an airstrike on November 10.
The wording of the probe is that it was "highly likely" that the air strike caused their deaths, though the probe says that it cannot know 100% certainty the cause of their deaths.
That said, the probe says that the place where the bodies were found and their condition, along with the pathological report, a further report by the state's forensic institute, and operations research into the battlefield situation and activities, all pointed strongly in the direction of the IDF having been responsible for the mistaken killing.
Trying to lessen the blame it might receive for admitting to causing the death, the IDF claimed that its intelligence in real-time in November not only suggested that Ghandour had no hostages around him but even suggested that these specific hostages were in another location.
The IDF did not seriously address allegations that it intentionally slo-walked an admission it could have made in December-January; it claimed that its probe results were not fully ready until now.
On September 10, IDF officials and hostage families started to leak the results of the probe, though the full results were not made public.
Even before September 10, it was known among military reporters and some others that the three hostages had overwhelmingly likely been killed mistakenly by the IDF, but this was mostly based on hints. 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 air strike might have killed the three hostages but said it would not confirm anything until after a forensics probe.
Overnight between September 9-10, 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 still has not provided a coherent explanation as to why it did not publicize the probe results to the public earlier given that medical reports, if given priority, do not take 10 months to be completed.
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.
It is still unclear how the IDF could have claimed in December that it had preexisting intelligence about the bodies while claiming that in November it did not, other than possibly a captured Hamas fighter provided information in those intervening weeks.
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 at the time said forensic probes into that issue were continuing.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this story.