This is the moment an Israeli pathologist broke down as he described how a victim of last week’s Hamas attack was burned alive while hugging his loved ones.
The pathologist stood in front of a screen showing the remains of the man killed in the massacres in southern Israel on October 7.
Dr. Chen Kugel, head of Israel’s National Center for Forensic Medicine, said the man was burned alive in his home while hiding in a shelter in the belief that this would protect him from the terrorist attack.
However, he said the man was killed when the terrorists set his house on fire. Reports detailed how Hamas fighters, upon learning that civilians were seeking refuge in safe spaces, set fire to their homes to either smoke them out or burn them alive.
The doctor said that in his 31 years as a forensic pathologist, he had “never seen people connected and trying to hug each other during their burns,” before asking the cameras to stop filming as he could no longer speak.
This is the moment an Israeli pathologist broke down as he described the horrors inflicted on some victims of last week’s Hamas terror attack
His presentation, shared by Israel’s official X account (Twitter), came after military forensic teams said on Saturday that they had found multiple signs of torture, rape and other atrocities while examining the remains of victims.
About 1,300 bodies have been taken to an army base in Ramla in central Israel, where forensic examinations are being carried out by special teams to determine the identities of the dead and the circumstances of their deaths.
They were killed by Hamas terrorists who stormed into Israel from Gaza on October 7 and rampaged through Israeli communities around the border.
The video from Dr. Kugel begins with a content warning telling viewers that “what you are about to see is extremely disturbing.” “We interviewed the experts who prepared autopsy reports on the victims of the Hamas massacre.”
Then we cut to the doctor standing in a white examination room in front of a screen showing the blackened remains of one of the attack victims.
“We see here one of the cases that is an example of the atrocities that we saw in the tragic event in Israel,” says Dr. Ball and points to the screen.
“This is of course the burned body of an adult.” “But we know he suffered burns while he was alive because we can see soot in this person’s trachea.”
At this point, the doctor points to the victim’s barely noticeable neck.
“They couldn’t shoot him because he was in a shelter. So that you [Hamas] “burned the house down and everyone who was in it burned to death while they were still alive,” he adds.
“And this is just one example of many atrocities and many terrible, terrible things that we see here in this tragedy that has happened to Israel.”
Dr. Chen Kugel, head of Israel’s National Center for Forensic Medicine, said the man whose remains appear on screen was burned alive in his home while holding his relatives as they sought refuge from the attack
His presentation, shared by Israel’s official X account (Twitter), came after military forensic teams said on Saturday that they had found multiple signs of torture, rape and other atrocities while examining the remains of victims
“I have been a forensic pathologist for 31 years. I’m used to seeing dead people. But I’ve never seen people connected and trying to hug each other during the cremation.
“I’m sorry,” he says, before panning the cameras away and walking out of the frame.
Rabbi Israel Weiss, a former chief rabbi of the army and one of the officials overseeing the identification of the dead, said Saturday that about 90 percent of Israeli military dead have been identified, while teams are already halfway through identifying civilians.
He also said many bodies showed signs of torture and rape.
“We saw dismembered bodies with arms and feet chopped off, people who were beheaded, a child who was beheaded,” a reserve officer identified only by her first name, Avigayil, told reporters.
She said forensic examination of the bodies stored in refrigerated containers revealed several cases of rape.
“We are carrying out identification using all means at our disposal,” said a military dentist identified as Captain Maayan. “We see them in severe stages of abuse. We see gunshots and we see signs that are pure torture.”
The military personnel who oversaw the identification process did not provide any forensic evidence in the form of images or medical records.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip, has denied widespread reports and allegations of abuses.
Hundreds of armed Hamas fighters, some on motorcycles, broke through barriers around Gaza in the early hours of October 7 and raced through surrounding communities, attacking a large outdoor dance festival as well as homes and military bases and kidnapping more than 120 Israelis and foreigners.
Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel, Saturday, Oct. 14
The body of a Hamas fighter lies on the ground at Kibbutz Kfar Aza in Israel on October 15
Up to 1,400 people were killed in the attack. The attack caused deep shock in Israel, both because of the unprecedented number of deaths in a single day and because of the graphic footage that emerged from the overrun towns and kibbutzim.
In response, Israeli warplanes and artillery bombed the Gaza Strip for days, killing more than 2,200 Palestinians and destroying thousands of buildings in advance of an expected ground invasion.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has compared Hamas to the Islamic State, the group that became known worldwide for its campaign of public beheadings in countries including Syria and Iraq.