Hamas massacres Forensics team still working to identify hundreds of bodies

On a table, a jumble of bones and fragments was laid out carefully on a table, some grey, others charred black. A skeleton hung at the side of the room for reference.

- Emma Graham-Harrison

Three forensic anthropologists peered over them with the focus of professionals trying to solve the most tragic of puzzles. Their job was to identify some of the most badly damaged remains of victims of Hamas massacres on 7 October .

The scale of the murders mean t that nine days on, more than 350 bodies of suspected civilian victims ha d not been identified, Dr Chen Kugel , the director of Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, told journalists. There were bodies burned beyond recognition, that had decayed badly before they were found . In some cases bodies were damaged.

Thousands are still desperately waiting for news about loved ones and for remains they can bury, a particularly urgent concern as Jewish religious tradition requires a rapid burial, with formal mourning beginning only after the funeral.

Kugel fears that the rate at which the team can give answers may slow, as they reach the most damaged bodies, and some victims may never be identified. “We did a lot of work in the past nine days; now we are at a peak, the rate of identification will decline as we are reaching the hard cases,” he said.