'Israel' killed tens of its own captives in war on Gaza: NYT
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The report by The New York Times highlighted that Netanyahu's insistence on freeing the Israeli captives through military action is the main reason behind the captives' deaths
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Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, centre, is escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, February 22, 2025. (AP)
More than 40 Israeli captives held by Palestinian Resistance factions were killed in captivity by Israeli occupation forces since October 7, 2023, a recent report revealed.
The analysis, published by the New York Times on Saturday, said 41 out of 251 Israeli soldiers and settlers captured by Hamas and other Palestinian Resistance groups were killed by "Israeli bombing and friendly fire."
NYT noted, citing the Israeli regime’s cabinet, that 24 out of the 59 captives still held by Palestinian groups are alive, while 130 of them were released alive.
"A few [captives] were almost certainly killed in the first days of the war, before it was possible to seal a truce. But many others have died since the brief first cease-fire collapsed in November 2023 and the fighting continued in a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians," the report said.
"The corpses of 40 others have been returned to Israel in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees following ceasefire agreements in November 2023 and January of this year," it further highlighted.
The US daily's analysis was based on forensic reports, military investigations into the captives’ deaths, and interviews with over a dozen Israeli soldiers and officials, along with a senior official and seven relatives of captives.
The paper cited Netanyahu's insistence on pursuing the war on Gaza to free the captives through military action rather than taking a deal to permanently end the fighting as the reason behind the deaths of captives.
Israeli media has repeatedly reported since October 2023 that Netanyahu was committed to sabotaging a deal that would see a cessation of the war and the freedom of the captives.
In one case, Maayan Sherman, the mother of Israeli captive Ron Sherman, accused the Israeli military of "deliberately" killing her son, whose body, along with two others, was retrieved from a tunnel in Gaza.
In a Facebook post, she insisted her son was not killed by Hamas or in the crossfire but was the victim of a premeditated attack involving bombs with poisonous gases, adding that Ron had several crushed fingers, likely from his desperate attempts to escape.
The New York Times report comes as the Israeli occupation continues to stall the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, intensifying its siege on the Strip, violating the ceasefire, and evading negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire.
Hamas' statements on dead captives killed by 'Israel' corroborated
The report also corroborates Hamas' repeated assertions that the dead captives they were holding were killed by Israeli fire.
In early December 2024, the group emphasized that the Israeli occupation military's acknowledgment of its responsibility for the deaths of captives confirms the accuracy of the Palestinian Resistance's account of events and exposes the Israeli occupation's narrative as false, holding it accountable for the consequences that unfolded.
At the time, Hamas pointed out that the killing of more Israeli captives by the Israeli occupation forces further proves the failure of Netanyahu’s theory of freeing captives through force, emphasizing that military pressure does not free captives, it only kills them.
In the same month, Abu Obeida, the military spokesperson for Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades, accused the Israeli military of deliberately and repeatedly targeting a location where Israeli captives were being held.
In a post on Telegram, he said, "The occupation army recently targeted a location where some enemy captives were held, bombing it multiple times to ensure that they were killed," stressing that the Resistance group has "intelligence confirming that the enemy deliberately targeted the location with the intent to kill the captives and their guards."
