Nearly two months after Hamas infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages, dozens are still unaccounted for, their families left living in limbo
There was no trace of Hanan Yablonka — not on the 42-year-old Israeli’s social media accounts nor on his phone, found in the bullet-riddled car he and three friends tried to flee in after Hamas militants attacked the music festival they were attending in southern Israel.
The friends were killed in the Oct. 7 attack. But nearly two months later, Yablonka’s family still has no news about what happened to him. He is one of dozens of people still unaccounted for after Hamas infiltrated Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages.
Some of the bodies of those who died were so badly burned in fires or explosions during the attacks that there’s little left to identify. Others who might still be alive haven’t been traced, forcing families to live in limbo.
“It’s a big nightmare, » Yablonka’s niece, Emanuel Abady, told The Associated Press. « Is he alive, is he dead, or where is the body? Maybe he’s in Gaza. … Maybe he got hurt, maybe he got shot, but he’s in Gaza. »
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, police, the military and investigators grappled with a mass casualty crime scene, trying to identify the dead and the abducted. Getting clear answers for people’s whereabouts and the number of dead was, and remains, challenging.
In November, the military adjusted the number of people killed from more than 1,400 to approximately 1,200, but didn’t specify why. It’s also repeatedly updated the number of hostages believed to have been taken into Gaza. Israeli officials told The Associated Press that dozens of people’s fates were still unknown, but wouldn’t respond to multiple requests for comment about why it’s taken so long to identify them and why the number of dead was adjusted.
The military said it has enlisted the help of archaeologists to apply excavation techniques used in burned and damaged ancient sites to help identify victims. The experts have helped identify at least 10 people.
Some people initially thought to have been taken hostage were proclaimed dead, including Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born Israeli peace activist whose family was recently notified she’d been killed.
