JERUSALEM — Six Israeli hostages whose bodies were found in the Gaza Strip over the summer were probably shot dead by their Hamas captors in February, around the same time that an Israeli airstrike hit near the underground tunnel where they were being held, the Israeli military said Wednesday.

The Israeli military said its investigators could not definitively determine how the six hostages had been killed. But the report could add further fuel to a debate in Israel over whether the country’s military campaign in Gaza is endangering the return of the remaining 100 captives still held there, at least some of whom are presumed dead.

Israeli forces recovered the bodies of the six hostages in August in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. The bodies bore signs of gunshot wounds.

Hamas militants lay dead nearby, apparently asphyxiated by the airstrike, said an Israeli military official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to comply with protocol. The official declined to elaborate further.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it was “highly probable” that the hostages’ deaths “were related to the strike,” which may have prompted the hostages’ captors to shoot them. But the Hamas guards’ deaths appeared to raise the possibility that the airstrike might have killed the six hostages either way.

The six hostages were mostly older people taken from their homes during the Hamas-led attack Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza. They were: Avraham Munder, 79; Haim Peri, 80; Yoram Metzger, 80; and Alexander Dancyg, 75, from the tiny kibbutz of Nir Oz, and Nadav Popplewell, 51; and Yagev Buchshtab, 35, from a nearby community, Nirim.

Hamas and its allies took 251 people captive during the Oct. 7 assault, which killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians. After over a year of war, hostages remain in Gaza despite Israel’s efforts to free them by force and an internationally backed push for a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.

Talks have been deadlocked for months, as both Israel and Hamas have set seemingly irreconcilable conditions for a postwar settlement.

Hamas has demanded that Israel end the war and withdraw from Gaza in exchange for releasing the remaining captives. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has vowed to destroy Hamas in Gaza and maintain overriding security control there.

Netanyahu argues that ramping up Israeli “military pressure” on Hamas will ultimately compel the Palestinian militants to come to an agreement. But at least some of the hostages have been mistakenly killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, including three soldiers.

The Israeli military has since tightened its criteria for authorizing airstrikes, such as sometimes mandating the approval of a special intelligence directorate working on the hostage issue, the statement said. That may require intelligence indicating that an area is clear of hostages, the Israeli military official told reporters.

Israel’s campaign in Gaza has flattened huge chunks of its cities and killed over 44,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, who do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. The Israeli military says it has “eliminated” 17,000 militants.

The families of the remaining hostages fear that each additional day in Gaza further threatens their loved ones’ lives. At least 37 of the remaining hostages are already presumed dead by the Israeli government; the bodies of another 37 have been retrieved by Israeli soldiers.

“The investigation is yet more evidence that military pressure leads to the killing of hostages,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement Wednesday. “The military inquiry, as well as numerous other events, shows the absolute urgency of bringing all of our people back.”

Israel Katz, the country’s defense minister, said he believed that Israel’s tactical successes against Hezbollah in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region were helping to further pressure Hamas. But he did not provide any additional details indicating that either Hamas or Israel was willing to compromise on any of its conditions.

“The pressure on the monstrous organization known as Hamas is growing,” Katz said in a statement Wednesday. “There is a chance that this time we will truly be able to advance a hostage deal.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Aaron Boxerman/Avishag Shaar-Yashuv
c. 2024 The New York Times Company