Forensic teams may not be able to identify hostage bodies as decay advances with time, experts warn
2025-04-29T08:44:55Z
Time erases evidence, erases findings, undermines the chances of recovery, and severely damages the ability to provide graves.
The Hostage Families’ Forum’s medical division warned on Tuesday that time is running out to recover the bodies of the 35 murdered hostages still held by Hamas and other Gaza terror groups, and there is an increasing danger that they will end up as anonymous corpses in unknown burial places.
The prolonged holding of bodies under unknown conditions, especially in active combat zones, jeopardizes the possibility of recovering and identifying them.
The more time passes, the more the ability to locate remains, identify the deceased, and determine their cause and time of death diminishes.
This is not only a deep humanitarian and moral issue, but also a real danger of losing critical evidence, the ability to identify the deceased, and the ability to provide families and Israeli society as a whole with a gravesite, closure, and answers, according to the report’s author, Professor Hagai Levine.
The lack of closure and the continuous uncertainty of the murdered hostages’ statuses have serious implications for the mental health of families, the health of Israeli society, and collective memory. Hostage families demonstrate for release of hostages from Hamas captivity, April 28, 2025. (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI)
Professional experience and scientific studies in pathology and forensic science show that time is critical for reconstructing the circumstances of death, especially under harsh environmental conditions.
This is because over time, loss of intelligence, decomposition, flooding, structural collapses, and animal activity in the area could make locating, identifying, and characterizing the deceased impossible.
Experts warn that any delay in returning the bodies of murdered hostages may lead to an irreversible loss of medical information, leaving families in permanent uncertainty with no way back. The ambiguity can be so extreme that some families may continue to hope their loved ones are still alive.
The loss of information and the growing intelligence gap
In many cases, the locations of murdered hostages are only known to a few individuals, whether terror operatives or local civilians. These individuals may be killed in fighting, disappear, or fail to pass on the information.
As time passes, the chances of obtaining direct, up-to-date, and reliable information decrease.
Further, without documentation of the location, time, or circumstances of death, and without available human intelligence, the ability to conduct guided recovery operations also diminishes.
Gaza’s environmental conditions also endanger the condition of the murdered hostages’ bodies, due to heat, humidity, recurring floods, and sewage seepage.
Ground movements and building collapses, especially in bombed areas, can lead to the covering, dispersal, or accidental burial of bodies.
Animal activity, including that from rodents, stray dogs, and insects, can cause irreversible dispersion of body parts and the deterioration of anatomical integrity.
These risks are further exacerbated in cases of improvised burials, temporary storage at unsuitable sites, or movement of bodies during combat.
Some of the murdered hostages are likely held or hidden in underground tunnels where extreme physical conditions are prevalent, including high humidity, poor ventilation, flood risks, structural collapses, and inaccessibility.
Damage to Gaza’s terror tunnels due to bombings, sabotage, or collapses could scatter or bury remains indiscriminately. Even if a tunnel is discovered in the future, the damage could render it impossible to retrieve or identify remains.
The Hostage Families Forum stressed that this poses a real danger that the murdered hostages may never be found.
Intelligence gaps and environmental destruction, each and certainly together, can turn the murdered hostages into permanent missing persons, eliminating even the basic possibility of returning them for burial.
Losing the possibility of physical recovery also denies the legal, social, and ceremonial ability to bring closure, leaving families and society trapped in uncertainty.
Impact on determining the circumstances of their deaths
Understanding the circumstances of the deaths of the murdered hostages may also be impaired if they are not recovered in time.
Without the ability to conduct a complete and documented pathological examination, which could include identifying signs of trauma, evidence of execution, medical neglect, or starvation, it will be impossible to determine how, when, and under what conditions they died.
Medical forensic findings are not only for documentation purposes, however. They are a vital foundation for establishing the truth, determining accountability, and achieving justice.
Reliable medical, legal, and pathological evidence is crucial. Without it, it will be difficult to conduct a valid investigative process or prosecute those responsible, even if they are later identified.
The window of opportunity for reliable forensic and legal documentation is short. Any delay compromises the future reliability of examinations and may prevent the possibility of drawing firm conclusions about the deaths.
In these harsh and complex circumstances, forensic examinations could illuminate critical questions — whether the deaths resulted from starvation, medical neglect, abuse, execution, or combat.
The profound human impact
Beyond legal consequences, there is a profound human impact. Families whose loved ones were killed or died in captivity have a fundamental right to know what happened to them. Understanding the circumstances and cause of death is not a mere technicality; it is vital for processing grief, understanding events, and achieving emotional and moral closure.
Many families seek not only the return of their loved ones but also the full story — what happened, what might have been preventable, and the truth. The absence of answers leaves them in painful limbo, where loss remains incomplete and mourning cannot fully begin.
The failure to return the murdered hostages for burial in Israel disrupts families’ mourning processes, leaving them in prolonged uncertainty. This results in a complex, traumatic, and unresolved bereavement that includes ambiguous loss, ongoing anxiety, and deceptive hope that perhaps the loss has not actually occurred.
Without physical certainty — while their loved ones remain held in Gaza — families experience fragmented mourning marked by intense feelings of guilt, loss, and helplessness. Many describe confusion about when to commemorate the shiva mourning period, hold memorials, or observe anniversaries, and a sense that mourning “has not truly begun.” They struggle to function, identify with public mourning rituals, or find a place in existing institutional frameworks.
This extreme situation — where an individual is declared deceased yet remains held by the enemy without burial — creates overwhelming emotional strain. It hinders life reconstruction, harms mental and physical health, and burdens entire families — immediate, extended, and beyond — including children, spouses, parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.
Research points to symptoms such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, anger attacks, and a persistent sense of suspension. In some cases, severe mental distress exacerbates existing illnesses or even leads to loss of life.
A clear conclusion; what the government must do
“This is not an abstract issue of principles. It is an urgent, real, and actionable necessity,” the Hostage Families’ Forum’s medical division stressed. “It is about preventing disappearance, preserving the ability to uncover the truth, and protecting the moral and social fabric of Israel.”
Time erases evidence, erases findings, undermines the chances of recovery, and severely damages the ability to provide graves, answers, and recognition to families.
The conclusion is clear. The government must reach an agreement that ensures the return of all hostages — the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for burial.
This is not merely a symbolic act, but a vital effort to save evidence, identity, and memory. Within months, the deceased could disappear.
Their return is not a luxury — it is a necessity. The fallen must be returned while it is still possible. This is the minimal duty of a country to its citizens, and of a society to its memory.
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