Questions mount over six hostages’ fate in Gaza after IDF finds gunshot wounds

Fury was palpable at the end of a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as protesters demanded a deal to free Israeli hostages in Gaza and grieved this week’s news that the bodies of six captives had been retrieved.

Fury was palpable at the end of a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as protesters demanded a deal to free Israeli hostages in Gaza and grieved this week’s news that the bodies of six captives had been retrieved. Their tragic fate has raised fears that more Israeli hostages will not be retrieved alive either, said one protester. “We need to bring back those that we know were alive,” Daniel told CNN. Continuing war as negotiations for a ceasefire-hostage deal falter “will only bring more coffins to them and to us,” the 48-year-old added. There has been no official explanation yet of how the six died. On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that initial forensic tests suggest that all six hostages had been shot, but it has not determined whether the gunshot wounds were the cause of death. IDF also underlined that the findings are preliminary. The IDF said four additional bodies were found next to the bodies of the six hostages, which were believed to be those of the Hamas militants who had been holding the hostages, but that no evidence of shooting was found on their bodies. The IDF did not name any alleged shooter.