Hamas Publishes Footage of 6 Hostages Alive

The footage shows the hostages before they were killed. Hamas also announced that this is a teaser for a full video that will be released soon.

The last time Hamas released such footage was in May, showing the hostage Nadav Popplewell, whose body was retrieved from Rafah ten days ago. New details were released yesterday about the location where the bodies of the hostages were found.

According to reports, the tunnel where the six hostages were held was in the Rafah area, just one kilometer from the tunnel where the hostage Farhan al-Qadi, who was released last week, was found. The IDF had estimated that there were additional hostages in the area where he was held, but lacked precise intelligence on the locations of the hostages now found, leading to a gradual and slow operation.

The IDF believes that the hostages were killed shortly before the forces located them. During the operation, there was no encounter with the militants who killed the six and fled the area. After the bodies were discovered in the tunnel, which was about 20 meters deep, they were recovered and transferred to Israeli territory at the border. Only at 4 a.m., identification teams from the police and military rabbinate confirmed the identities of the hostages after conducting field medical examinations.