NEW YORK, September 1. /TASS/. The six hostages whose bodies were found by the Israeli military near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on August 31 had been shot dead, NBC reported, citing an Israeli source.

According to the source, the forensic examination proved that the six had been shot dead by Hamas radicals.

According to IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari, the bodies of the six hostages were found in an underground tunnel near the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip late on August 31. He said that the six had apparently been murdered shortly Israeli troops reached the area. He said that the bodies had been found during fighting in the tunnel located one kilometer from another one, where another Israeli hostage had been saved several days before. After he was released, Israeli troops operating in the area were ordered to act with caution but they did not know that more hostages could be somewhere near, Hagari said.

According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, as many as 101 people are being held hostage by Hamas radicals in the Gaza Strip. Thirty-nine of them are dead and radicals are holding their bodies.

Meanwhile, Hamas claims that six hostages were killed as a result of Israel’s strikes on the enclave.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 240 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.