The Israeli military said today that bullets were found in the bodies of six hostages whose bodies were recovered from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip, adding that the circumstances of their deaths were being investigated.

A spokesman for the Israeli armed forces said that during the forensic examination of the bodies “bullets were found in the bodies of the six hostages”.

On Tuesday, the military announced it had recovered the bodies of six men abducted by members of Hamas during the Palestinian Islamist group’s October 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel. His spokesman, Vice Admiral Daniel Haggari, later clarified that the six men “were killed while (the army) was operating in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

“The exact circumstances of the hostages’ deaths are being investigated,” he added, stressing that the results would be announced “to the families of the hostages and the public.”

Many families of hostages who died in Gaza said they were told by the military that their relative might have been killed during ground operations or Israeli shelling of the Palestinian enclave.

Of the 251 hostages taken by Hamas last year, 105 are still in Gaza but 34 of them are believed to be dead.