The Israeli military concluded on Monday that another four of its citizens taken hostage on Oct. 7 have died in captivity in the Gaza Strip.
Amiram Cooper, Haim Perry, Yoram Metzger, and Nadav Popplewell were all abducted during attacks inside southern Israel led by Hamas—a U.S. and Israeli-designated Palestinian terrorist group—and its affiliates.
The IDF said it decided to publicly report these four men had died after intelligence assessments and deliberations with Israeli health and religious ministers and the chief rabbi of Israel.
IDF spokesman Rear Adml. Daniel Hagari said the four men were likely killed while they were being held in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis. The city has seen months of fighting as Israeli forces have sought to eliminate Hamas and locate captives taken on Oct. 7.
Rear Aml. Hagari did not specify how these four captives might have died but said the IDF is "checking all of the options" and has "many questions" left to answer.
Messrs. Cooper, Metzger, and Perry are all at least 80 years old. The three men appeared alive in a video posted by Hamas-affiliated media sites in December. In the video, Mr. Perry pleaded for a deal for their release.
"We do not understand why we have been abandoned here," Mr. Peri said in the December hostage video, adding that he and his fellow captives do not wish to risk being killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Other Hostages
The IDF's decision to conclude Messrs. Cooper, Perry, Metzger, and Popplewell had died came just hours after Israeli forces reported locating the body of another Israeli citizen, whom they identified as Dolev Yehud, a 34-year-old father of four. The IDF concluded Mr. Yehud was working as a paramedic rendering medical aid at Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters killed him and took his body back to the Gaza Strip.Messrs. Cooper, Metzger, Perry, and Yehud are among the approximately 250 people missing or taken captive after the Oct. 7 attack.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other members of his governing coalition have set wartime goals to eliminate Hamas and win the release of all remaining hostages.
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the Israeli government had put forward a three-part deal for a Gaza ceasefire in exchange for the release of the remaining captives held in the Gaza Strip since October. The exact details of the proposed plan have proven divisive.
In his Friday remarks, President Biden said Israeli forces have "devastated Hamas" over the past eight months of fighting and rendered them incapable of carrying out another attack as they did on Oct. 7. But President Biden did not clearly say on Friday that the peace plan would see Hamas' total defeat, going only so far as to say the ensuing peace framework would "not allow Hamas to re-arm."
Mr. Netanyahu insisted on Saturday that "Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed" and that Israeli forces would keep working to ensure the destruction of Hamas' military and governing capabilities.