Bereaved mother claims IDF accidentally killed hostage son with poison gas

The IDF was not aware ahead of time that the hostages were in the area where they carried out an operation that killed senior Hamas terrorist commander Ahmad Al Ghandour.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

The mother of Ron Sherman, one of the hostages discovered dead in Gaza, posted on social media that she believes he was killed by poison gas from an IDF operation, but the IDF has not confirmed this theory.

The bodies of Sgt. Ron Sherman, Cpl. Nick Beiser and Elia Toledano were recovered by the IDF from a Hamas tunnel by the IDF in Jabalya in mid-December.

The bodies of Aden Zakaria and Ziv Dado were found in the same area two days earlier.

The IDF was not aware ahead of time that the hostages were in the area where they carried out an operation that killed senior Hamas terrorist commander Ahmad Al Ghandour.

In a post, Mayaan Sherman, mother of Ron Sherman, posted that she believes the IDF was responsible for her son’s death.

She wrote, “The results of the investigation: Ron was indeed murdered. Not by Hamas.”

She continued, “Think more in terms of Auschwitz and the showers but without Nazis and without Hamas as the cause…bombs with poisonous gases.”

Mayaan Sherman implied that the IDF filled the tunnel with gas and his son suffocated from the poisonous fumes.

She continued, “They found that he also had several crushed fingers, apparently due to his desperate attempts to get out of the poison grave that the IDF buried him in. When he tried to breathe air, but he only breathed IDF poison.”

In addition to her harsh words for the IDF, Mayaan Sherman also criticized military and government leaders, “What would have been the decision if Bibi’s son was there in the terrorist’s tunnel or Gallant’s grandson? Or the son of Hertzi Halevi? Would they also have been poisoned with gas bombs?”

It has been reported that the IDF did not know that hostages were in the tunnel when they made the attack.

The IDF released a statement on Tuesday, “Due to the condition of the bodies, it is not possible to determine the cause of death.”

The statement continued, “At this stage, it cannot be ruled out or confirmed that they were killed as a result of suffocation, poisoning, or residual aspects of an IDF attack or a Hamas operation. Samples were taken to carry out further toxicological testing, which may reveal more details later.”

The statement concluded, “As mentioned, at this stage, it is not possible to determine the cause of death.”