The six Israeli captives who were found dead in a tunnel in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip this weekend were shot in the head and killed sometime within the last two days, according to a report published by Yedioth Aharanoth on Sunday.

Over the weekend, Israeli soldiers operating in Rafah retrieved the remains of six captives held by Hamas terrorists since the October 7th invasion.

The victims were later identified as Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Ori Danino, 25, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, and and Carmel Gat, 40.

On Sunday, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the six captives appeared to have been executed by their captors “a short time” before they were located by Israeli soldiers.

Later on Sunday, Yedioth Aharanoth reported that the remains of the six hostages were returned to Israel at approximately 4:00 a.m. Sunday, and were immediately brought for forensic testing and identification.

The examinations revealed, according to the report, that the six hostages had been shot in the head sometime within the prior 48 hours.

The IDF estimates that the six hostages were originally held in the northern Gaza Strip, and were only brought to Rafah later in the war.

In addition to establishing the time of death and the cause of death, the forensic examinations showed that the hostages had suffered from neglect, that they had not bathed for a lengthy period of time, and that they had sustained serious injuries, which were later treated.

The remains of the six captives were founded without the benefit of intelligence information, when a unit of IDF soldiers were traversing a tunnel under Rafah.

The tunnel in question is located roughly one kilometer (3,280 feet) from where Farhan al-Qadi, and Israeli Bedouin man held hostage in Gaza since October 7th, was rescued by Israeli forces last week.