An investigation by the Hebrew website “Siha Mekumit” – citing military sources – stated that the Israeli army was aware that detonating regular bombs inside the tunnels might lead to the release of toxic gases that would kill the fighters of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), and also Israeli prisoners, including Ron Ibn Maayan Sherman, who now accuses the military of deliberately killing him.
Two sources told the site that the army knows that the explosion of bombs at the opening of the tunnels releases toxic gases inside them, including carbon monoxide, and that Hamas fighters were killed in this way in Operation “Guardian of the Walls” in May 2021, when bombs were directed to the openings for this purpose.
One of these two sources stated that Hamas fighters were killed not only by the explosion of bombs during that operation, but also by the gases they released, while the second source spoke of internal experiments conducted by the army that proved the lethal effectiveness of this tactic.
A trap for Hamas
Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkov at the time set the goal of “Operation Lightning” – which is part of “Guardian of the Walls” – to turn the tunnels into a deadly trap for hundreds of Hamas fighters, as the matter – according to the first source – is not related to using a chemical or biological explosive head, but rather to detonate Bombs inside a closed space, which contribute to the release of gases that affect a wide area of this space.
The issue of the use of poisonous gases in the Gaza Strip came to the fore after Maayan Sherman – the mother of Ron, the soldier who was captured by the resistance, and whose body was recovered in mid-December with the bodies of two other prisoners – claimed that the army had deliberately killed him.
In an interview with her, the Siha Mekumet website reported that her son was killed, but “not by Hamas nor in accidental shooting, but rather he was killed intentionally; he was killed with poisonous gas bombs.”
She added that an army delegation visited her after retrieving the body and did not rule out the hypothesis of death by poisoning as a result of Israeli bombing. She stated that “there were no fractures or wounds resulting from bullets on the body, nor even the hardened effects of punches.”
According to Dr. Daniel Solomon, a specialist in treating trauma wounds resulting from smoke and gas inhalation, it is difficult to find external signs indicating carbon monoxide poisoning if a certain period has passed between death and the moment the body is retrieved.
The Israeli army says that the bodies of Sherman and two others were found on December 14 in a tunnel in Jabalia, near a place where Ahmed Al-Ghandour, commander of the Northern Brigade of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement, was holed up. He was bombed by a bomb early last November, and Hamas announced his death. .
But Sherman accuses the army of killing her son by proceeding with the assassination of Al-Ghandour, despite knowing that her son was there.
Although an Israeli source denied this claim, he also said that he believed that “in order to kill Al-Ghandour, the army bombed a building full of Palestinians and killed dozens of them.”
This source said that the army made a mistake in the first attempt, but in the second it hit Al-Ghandour, who was at the bottom of a large building, and “when you bomb, you know that the bombing will bring down the entire building. I believe that many Palestinians were killed.”
“We bombed prisoners for sure.”
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari claimed that the army was not aware of the presence of prisoners in the Ghandour concentration area, but this spokesman claimed the same thing even after Hamas broadcast a recording in which prisoner Noa Argamani appeared, in which she said that the building in which she was held with two other prisoners had been bombed by the army.
The “Siha Mekumit” website reminded that Hagari’s words are not consistent with the testimony of a senior security source, which was revealed for the first time and which acknowledges that the Air Force at the beginning of the war bombed dozens of Palestinians inside Gaza who were known as “kidnappers” despite fears of the presence of prisoners near them, so the source added explicitly. The phrase: “Mistakes are possible, and we certainly bombed prisoners.”
But doesn’t this seem more like a decision than a mistake?
The security source answers, “It is not a decision taken at the army level, but rather at the political level, and perhaps by senior commanders in the army.” He added, “All we were doing was bombing a group of kidnappers.”
According to the same source, the army used to suspend bombing operations when it knew there were prisoners in the area, but this only happened in the final stages of the war. According to him, Sherman’s testimony applies to the beginning of the battles, when those suspected of involvement in kidnapping operations were bombed on October 7, and it was assumed that they were keeping prisoners in their homes, even if defining them as such did not necessarily mean holding them captive. He notes that “ “The pain and the spirit of revenge were overwhelming at first.”
The hypothesis of poisoning and suffocation
After recovering the bodies of Sherman and two other prisoners, the army claimed that the three detainees were killed by Hamas, but the medical autopsy did not show any signs of external injuries such as gunshot wounds or fractures, and the military spokesman Hagari himself at the time did not rule out that they had died of suffocation, poisoning, or even as a result of Israeli bombing. In addition – of course – to the hypothesis that they were killed by Hamas.
The army decided to close the investigation into the killing of Ron Sherman, but his mother demanded that it continue, saying, “They repeatedly told us in our meetings with the army and the government that they believed there were prisoners near senior Hamas leaders, so how, knowing that, did they go ahead with the bombing?”, ending her speech with a cry of pain, “Someone.” He is lying. It is clear that they sacrificed my son. Would they have done what they did if it had been about (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s son and not my son Ron?”
In response to the “Siha Mekumet” report, a military spokesman merely said that the lives of prisoners are a high priority, and that the Air Force refrains from bombing when it learns of their presence in the bombing area. He stressed that the army did not have information about the presence of detainees in the tunnel in which the brigade commander was holed up. The north in Hamas at the moment of the bombing.
