Mother of Israeli hostage accuses army of poisoning her son to death

The Israeli army yesterday informed the families of prisoners of war Ron Sherman, Nick Beiser and Elia Toledano that it is not possible to determine what caused their deaths, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“IDF representatives arrived at the families of the kidnapped soldiers, Sgt. Ron Sherman and Cpl. Nick Beiser, in order to inform them of the findings regarding the circumstances of their deaths in Hamas captivity late Tuesday night.”

The newspaper reported that the occupation army retrieved their bodies from an Al-Qassam tunnel in Jabalya camp on 14 December.

“Close to where the bodies were found, the IDF attacked a tunnel in which the commander of the northern division of Gaza, Ahmad Al Ghandour, was killed,” the newspaper added, noting that “the investigation shows that at the time of the attack, the IDF did not know about the presence of hostages in the area. Also, the forces who found their bodies during searches in the tunnel did not have prior intelligence about their presence.”

On Tuesday, Ron Sherman’s mother accused the army of mistakenly killing her son. “The results of the investigation: Ron was indeed murdered. Not by Hamas. Think more in the direction of Auschwitz and the showers but without Nazis and without Hamas as the cause. No accidental shooting, no report, premeditated murder, bombings with poisonous gases,” she said.

According to her, the Israeli army filled the tunnel in which he was held with gas, and her son was poisoned to death.

The mother claimed that “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 in him when he tried to breathe air, but he only breathed IDF poison.”

According to a statement issued by the Israeli army, the autopsy report showed there were no signs of injury or gunshots on the bodies of the two captives.

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

The bodies of three 28-year-old Beiser and 19-year-olds Sherman and Toledano were recovered in Gaza by Israeli occupation forces in mid-December.

READ: Army operations in Gaza will not return captured Israelis, analyst says