In the forensic institute of Tel Aviv, the smell of death is unbearable: inside boxes, on metal beds, charred, mutilated corpses decomposing. This is where the remains of the Israelis massacred by Hamas on October 7 lie, pending examination and identification by their relatives.

There are dead bodies everywhere. Or human limbs. All around, coroners in green suits try to piece the bodies together in a macabre puzzle.

Before being examined by experts, the bodies are placed on stretchers, inside plastic, black bags. Some of the bags are very small, child-sized. A number is assigned to each of them. Stretchers arrive from everywhere, pushed by men, mostly Orthodox Jews who volunteered. Their religion dictates that a dead person may not be buried unless the body is complete. For this, they do everything they can.

“We decided to show this horror because there are people who accuse us of lying and showing dog bones,” the institute’s director, Dr. Hen Kugel, tells AFP, unable to hold back sobs. It shows a pile of bones and flesh, tied together with electrical wire, the casing of which has melted. “On the CT scan we clearly see two spines. That of a man or a woman – we don’t know – and a child. The posture of the bodies shows that the adult tried to protect the little one. They tied them up and then burned them alive,” he explains.

Dr. Kugel is crying. “I’ve been doing this job for 31 years. I never saw such brutality, such brutality, such fury. It’s just horrible,” he says.

Headless corpses

Israeli authorities say the death toll from attacks by hundreds of Hamas Islamists on towns and kibbutzim bordering the Gaza Strip is more than 1,400. Since the October 7 attack, Israeli forces have been pounding Gaza, where local authorities say at least 5,000 have been killed.

In addition to the seven medical examiners of the Tel Aviv Institute, an anthropologist, a radiologist, eight geneticists and some thirty volunteers are participating in the effort to identify the dead. All of them express surprise because the victims’ lungs are filled with smoke. Other bodies have bullet marks in the back. Some resisted, fighting hand-to-hand with the attackers, as evidenced by the scars on their hands.

“We don’t know how many babies, nor how many old people were killed. There are many headless corpses. It will take some time to identify them all,” admits Dr. Kugel.

A family of Ukrainians was excommunicated. They had left to escape the war in their country. Their identity remains unknown. There are also some American citizens. “Maybe we have other nationalities,” comments forensic pathologist Hagar Mizrahi.

The management of the institute asks the journalists “to behave responsibly, not to publish details that could upset the families of the victims”.

Nurit Boubil is the head of the team of geneticists. As he says, hundreds of bodies have been sent to the Institute and most have already been identified. “Sometimes it’s difficult because the victims were tied together. It is possible that we have two or even three bodies in one bag,” he added.

Before being transferred to the institute, some bodies were sent to the Shura military base, near Ramla, where a first attempt at identification was made or they were placed in refrigerators.

Among the doctors, medical examiners and volunteers, former army chief rabbi Israel Weiss, now retired, arrived to help. “I open the freezer door, I see the dead, I feel the smell, I let it fill my lungs and my heart, but what I feel most is pain for their loss,” says the rabbi.

Weiss and other members of his team who examined the bodies say many of the victims were tortured or raped. Agence France-Presse was unable to verify this claim from another, independent source.

“I have never seen such horror in my life,” assures the rabbi, in front of the freezers where up to 50 corpses are placed in each of them. “I saw babies, women and men decapitated. I saw a pregnant woman whose abdomen was cut open and the fetus was uprooted,” he says.

To identify victims, experts rely on DNA, fingerprints or dental records.

According to Israeli authorities, 90% of the soldiers killed and less than half of the civilians have so far been identified.

Psychologists and social workers are there to help the specialists at the end of the day when they complete their work.

The military has warned that it will take several weeks before all the victims are identified and a final tally of the carnage is announced.