Moshe Ajami, a veteran Israeli archaeologist, has spent decades searching the country’s southern desert to unearth lost ruins that are more than 2,000 years old. But in recent weeks he has focused on sifting through the ashes of homes burned by Hamas terrorists during last month’s surprise attack and searching for bones, blood and teeth of Israelis still missing.
“As archaeologists, we are trained to identify human remains that others may miss,” Mr. Ajami, the deputy head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said during an interview in his office in Jerusalem.
The soft-spoken Mr. Ajami is one of about 15 archaeologists with experience in excavations ranging from ancient scrolls to buried tombs who have mobilized to provide closure to Israelis still waiting for news of their loved ones offer. The team has so far recovered the remains of at least 60 people, he said, most of them in Be’eri, a village of 1,000 people that suffered devastating losses in the attack.
The attack on October 7th left around 1,400 dead, 240 kidnapped and numerous missing in Israel. The country is still in crisis, thousands have been evacuated from their homes and the government is slow to respond. Weeks after the disaster, some bodies have yet to be identified and their families remain obscure.
Israeli health authorities, accustomed to processing a few dozen cases a week, have been overwhelmed by the influx of bodies, some of which they say have been desecrated or burned. While the military leads the identification effort, a handful of organizations and independent initiatives – from groups of bird watchers to K-9 units – are combing the affected area looking for signs of the missing.
A house in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel, was destroyed in the Hamas attack last month. Photo credit: Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times
Yossi Cohen, a reserve colonel overseeing efforts to identify the missing, visited the remains of the home of Ram and Lili Itamari in the southern Israeli village of Kfar Aza on Oct. 15. The visit prompted him to call the head of the antiquities authority to ask for archaeological help, he said.
When Hamas gunmen stormed the village, 63-year-old Lili Itamari told her family that she was hiding in a reinforced security room, her son Tomer said. As in other border villages, militants set fire to the house and when the military finally arrived at Ms. Itamari’s home they could find no trace of her.
“It became clear to me that with over 200 people missing and dozens of buildings and bodies burned, we need to approach this search differently,” Colonel Cohen said.
The next day, Mr Ajami and a team began searching Ms Itamari’s house. In the weeks since, archaeologists have searched other destroyed homes near the Gaza border, looking for tiny fragments of bone and teeth.
“In some ways, this work is similar to our daily practice,” Mr Ajami said, including the use of standard equipment such as sieves and dustpans. “But it’s also completely different. The bones we usually find belong to faceless people who died thousands of years ago.”
While searching the remains of Ms. Itamari’s home, archaeologists found small remains that they sent for DNA analysis so authorities could identify them, her son said. In another case in Be’eri, teams uncovered teeth and blood tissue in a carpet, Mr. Ajami said.
On Monday, Colonel Cohen entered a burned house in Be’eri. Inside, an archaeologist and a soldier knelt on a large pile of ash and poured the remains into a bucket for examination.
Teams can still find remains even after a person has already been buried. An Israeli military official said that in such cases they would be placed in the grave without informing the families.
For the first week after the attack, Joe Uziel, an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls – a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts – sat at home “helpless,” he said. When the military called him for help, he volunteered.
“We have unique, applicable skills,” said Dr. Uziel. “It’s reassuring to know that I’m contributing something.”