Placards with photos of hostages kidnapped in the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas hang amidst the debris of burnt houses in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel, on March 12.Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters
The Israeli military on Monday confirmed the deaths of four more hostages held by Hamas – including three older men seen in a Hamas video begging for their release.
The three men, Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger and Haim Peri, were all age 80 or older. Looking weak and wary, they appeared in a video in December released by Hamas under the title, “Don’t let us grow old here.”
The fourth hostage was identified as Nadav Popplewell.
Israel’s military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said the four men died together in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis when Israel was operating there. The cause of death was not immediately known.
“We are checking all of the options,” Hagari said. “There are a lot of questions.”
Israel carried out a major offensive in Khan Younis, a Hamas stronghold, early this year.
Hamas claimed in May that Popplewell had died after being wounded in an Israeli air strike, but provided no evidence.
Cooper, Metzger and Peri were featured in a Hamas propaganda video in which Peri, clearly under duress, said in the video that all three men had chronic illnesses and accused Israel of abandoning them.
The deaths added to the growing list of hostages who Israel says have died in captivity. On Oct. 7, Hamas took some 250 hostages back to Gaza. Roughly half were released during a brief ceasefire period in November. Of some 130 remaining in the strip, about 85 are believed to still be alive. That’s as Israeli leadership brushes aside a Biden proposal to end the war and initiate another hostages-for-prisoners exchange.
Also, an Israeli who went missing during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas-led Palestinian gunmen and was presumed to have been taken hostage has been found dead in the border village where he lived, Israeli media said on Monday.
After what it described as lengthy forensics, Israel’s military confirmed the identification of the remains of Dolev Yehoud, whose surname has also been spelled Yehud in English.
A military statement said Yehoud, a 35-year-old volunteer medic, was among dozens of residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz killed in the Oct. 7 rampage in which many homes burned to the ground.
Dozens of other residents were taken by Hamas into captivity in the neighbouring Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Among those was Yehoud’s sister, Arbel, 28, the family said.
Nine days after the attack, Yehoud’s wife gave birth to their fourth child.
The Hamas-led rampage, in which Israel said about 1,200 people were killed in southern Israeli communities, triggered an Israeli offensive in Gaza to try to eliminate the Islamist militant group.