Four Israelis taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 have died, the Israel Defense Forces said Monday.
The IDF told the families of Nadav Popplewell, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper and Haim Perry that they were “no longer alive” and that Hamas had their remains.
The deaths were announced as an Israeli cease-fire proposal backed by President Joe Biden was challenged by right-wing ministers in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government who oppose any deal with Hamas.
“Its decision to declare the four hostages dead is based on intelligence,” the IDF said.
“We estimate that all four of them were killed together in the Khan Younis area, which was held by Hamas terrorists,” said IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari.
Hagari does not say how they died. But in March, al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Ubaydah announced that Perry, Metzger and Cooper were among seven hostages killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza.
Last month, Popplewell appeared in a propaganda video released by Hamas. Israeli media reported.
Popplewell, 51, was taken captive with his mother from their home in Kibbutz Nirim.
“It is with deep sadness that Kibbutz Nirim announces the death of Nadav Popplewell, who was abducted while in captivity by Hamas in Gaza,” the community said. A report was issued Monday.
Popplewell’s elderly mother, Hannah Berry, was among a group of a dozen Israeli hostages released on November 24 as part of a temporary cease-fire agreement.
Metzger, 83, lived in the Nir Oz Kibbutz and was last seen alive in a video released by Hamas in December.
At the time, his son Guy told NBC News that he was “really worried” about his father and that he was “very tired.”
“He’s very sick, and so are his friends,” the younger Metzger said. “We are very concerned about their condition.”
Some 125 Israeli hostages have been captured nearly eight months after they were kidnapped in a deadly surprise attack by Hamas that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.
