FALCON POWERS – The Campaign of the Forum of Families of Hostages in Israel said on Thursday, based on recent autopsy reports, that the bodies of the six hostages returned from Gaza this week were found to have bullet wounds.
The Israeli military told Reuters that it had retrieved four other bodies alongside the hostages’ bodies, believed to be Hamas fighters, and those bodies did not show signs of gunshot wounds. These comments come a day after US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the need to reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza and to release the hostages held there.
The campaign believes the total number of remaining hostages in Gaza is 109, and around a third of them have died, while the fate of the rest remains unknown.
The campaign said “Every minute that passes without an agreement, another hostage may lose their life. It is clear to everyone that the hostages can only be returned through an agreement.”
The campaign added that the recovery of the six hostages’ bodies was not an achievement, but rather a testament to the government’s failure to reach an agreement in a timely manner and return the hostages alive.
Ceasefire talks mediated by international parties resumed in Cairo earlier on Thursday. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken left the region on Tuesday without achieving a breakthrough in the effort to stop the 10-month-old war.
The intermittent ceasefire talks have revolved around the same issues for months, but Israel and Hamas are adamant about their demands.
