When three Israeli soldiers, held in Gaza, were removed by the Israeli army from a tunnel in the Jabaliya area, in the northern Gaza Strip, there was no official explanation as to how they were killed.
Considering that the Palestinian Resistance does not kill captives, and that, even by the admission of the Israeli army itself, Israeli captives have been killed by Israeli fire, the December 14 incident raised many questions.
The soldiers were Ron Sherman and Nick Beiser. The third, according to claims by Haaretz, which reported on the story, is a civilian, although the Palestine Chronicle cannot verify the claim.
About a month after the discovery of the bodies, “the army gave their families the pathology report and a report on how the bodies were found,” Haaretz reported, raising “tough and troubling questions that require explanations and public exposure.”
Even by the standards of the strong Palestinian Resistance, as displayed in 108 days of fighting, what is currently taking place in Khan Yunis can only be described as extraordinary. https://t.co/FazPSBdBqD pic.twitter.com/7ZAZJOie8t
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 22, 2024
Poisoned to Death
These questions were pursued by one of the soldier’s mothers, Maayan Sherman, who, according to the Israeli newspaper, is a veterinarian.
Resorting to social media to confront Israeli military claims, Sherman said that her son was poisoned to death by the Israeli army.
Israel has been using poisonous gas to kill Palestinian fighters inside Resistance tunnels, as to avoid having to fight underground.
“The inquiry’s findings: Ron was indeed murdered,” she wrote in a Facebook post, cited by Haaretz.
My son was “not (killed) by Hamas … not by stray bullets and not in an exchange of fire. This was deliberate murder. Bombing with poison gas … Oh yes, and they found that Ron also had several crushed fingers, apparently due to his desperate attempts to escape the poison grave.”
ISRAELI SOURCES (Cited in Al-Jazeera): About 20 officers and soldiers were killed and wounded when two buildings were detonated, and a third collapsed in Khan Yunis. pic.twitter.com/m1ObpeFd7I
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) January 22, 2024
She continued,
“(My son) was abducted due to the criminal negligence of all the senior figures in the army and this rotten government, who gave the order to kill him to settle a score with some bloodthirsty, but also really stupid, terrorist named Ghandour from Jabaliya.”
‘Evasive’ Hagari
Haaretz cited Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli army, writing that his response to the Israeli mother was ‘evasive.’
Hagari had said that “it wasn’t possible to determine what killed the three hostages,” the newspaper said, and that “at this point, we can neither deny nor confirm that they were killed due to suffocation, strangulation, poisoning, the effects of the IDF attack or Hamas action.”
“This evasive response was apparently meant to silence the discussion and create doubts about the family’s claims, without denying them directly or getting into a fight with bereaved parents,” Haaretz elaborated.
Dozens of Israeli captives have been reportedly, whether by Hamas itself, or through direct admissions by the Israeli military, have been killed since the start of the war as a result of Israeli action.
Maayan Sherman, mother of an Israeli soldier who was one of three hostages found dead in a Gaza tunnel in December, says they were killed when Israel flooded the tunnel with poison gas. She compared his death to the gassing of Jews in the Holocaust, calling it ‘premeditated… pic.twitter.com/Wykk9Czhrf
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) January 18, 2024
In one case, three Israeli captives were killed by their own colleagues as they tried to escape from Shejaiya last month.
Others were killed in foiled rescue operations, in various parts of the Gaza Strip.
Additionally, according to Israeli military estimates, nearly one fourth of all Israelis killed in Gaza have been shot or bombed in many ‘friendly fire’ incidents.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 25,295 Palestinians have been killed, and 63,000 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
