'High probability' Israel airstrike caused deaths of 3 hostages in November: army

The Israeli military on Sunday said there was a "high probability" an Israeli airstrike was responsible for the deaths of three hostages who were killed in Gaza in November.

The bodies of the three hostages, Corporal Nik Beizer, Sergeant Ron Sherman and French-Israeli Elia Toledano, were brought back to Israel in December.

"The findings of the investigation suggest a high probability that the three were killed as a result of a byproduct of an IDF [Israeli army] airstrike, during the elimination of the Hamas Northern Brigade commander, Ahmed Ghandour, on November 10th, 2023," the military said in a statement, referring to the three captives.

"This assessment is based on the location of where their bodies were found in relation to the strike's impact, performance analysis of the strike, intelligence findings, the results of the pathological reports, and the conclusions of the Forensic Medicine Institute."

"This is a high-probability assessment based on all of the available information, but it is not possible to definitively determine the circumstances of their deaths," the military said.

The bodies of the three captives were recovered on December 14.

The military said its investigation revealed that the three captives had been held in a tunnel complex from which Ghandour operated.

"At the time of the strike, the IDF did not have information about the presence of captives in the targeted compound," the military said.

"Furthermore, there was information suggesting that they were located elsewhere, and thus the area was not designated as one with suspected presence of hostages."

The war in Gaza was sparked by the Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held captive in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead. Some were killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes.

Hamas says the attack came in response to decades of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and the continued aggression against the Palestinian people, as well as the blockade of Gaza.

Israel's ferocious and indiscriminate air and ground offensive in Gaza has since killed at least 41,206 people, according to the health ministry in the territory, most of them women and children. Around 10,000 missing persons are presumed dead, and over 95,000 others have been wounded.

While 105 hostages were released during a one-week truce in November in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, three captives were killed by Israeli fire.

The military says it mistakenly killed Yotam Haim, Samer El-Talalqa and Alon Shamriz in December in northern Gaza.