Hamas massacre victims were tortured, confirms forensic institute

“I’ve seen many things in my 31-year career, but the magnitude and the cruelty [here] is terrible,” the forensic pathologist said.

By World Israel News Staff

A forensic pathologist at Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, also known as Abu Kabir, said that the wounds suffered by victims of Hamas’ brutal incursion into Israel were the worst atrocities he had seen in his career.

“When you do this job downstairs, you get detached,” Dr. Chen Kugel, the head of the Tel Aviv-based forensic institute, told The Media Line.

“But then you learn the stories and connect to the people. It’s hard not to feel the tragedy. It’s so big. And when I go to the Shura camp [collection point for the remains of Israeli victims] and see containers like you’d see at the port — but they’re all full of bodies… And you hear the stories — that behind their charred bodies, something terrible happened — it’s very difficult.

“I’ve seen many things in my 31-year career, but the magnitude and the cruelty [here] is terrible,” Kugel added. “The proportion of bodies we’ve received who are charred is high.”

He said that the injuries sustained by the victims served as evidence of the torture they faced before their murders.

“Many have gunshot wounds in their hands, showing they put their hands up to their faces in defense,” he told The Media Line.

“Many were burned alive in their homes. … We know they were burned alive because there is soot in their trachea, their throats—meaning they were still breathing when set on fire.”

Dr. Nurit Bublil, a DNA expert at Abu Kabir, told The Media Line that despite trying to keep her professional distance, she felt emotionally affected by her work on the victims of the massacre.

“Yesterday, I opened evidence from a house in a southern kibbutz, and there was a popular recipe book covered in blood,” Bublil said.

“I have this same book, and it makes you take a moment and think, it could have been my kitchen, my children, my parents, me. You can’t avoid it.”

Abu Kabir forensic instituteHamasmassacreOctober 7thSwords of Iron War