Identification completed: One of the boys significantly resisted his captors

July 1, 2014   

This morning (Tuesday), the official, legal and halakhic process of final identification of the three kidnapped boys, Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrach and Gilad Shaar, whose bodies were found yesterday near Halhul, was completed. לפי אתר וואלה, אחד הנערים התנגד בצורה משמעותית לחוטפיו - כך אומרים גורמים שהיו מעורבים בהליך זיהוי גופות החטופים, בהתבסס על ממצאי גופתו של אותו נער. הגופות נמצאו אתמול בשעות אחר הצהריים, בעקבות זיהוי של סייר שהשתתף בחיפושים שניהל צה"ל בשבועיים האחרונים באותו אזור. זמן קצר לאחר מציאת הגופות היה ברור שמדובר בגופות שלושת הנערים, אולם הליך הזיהוי הרשמי נמשך עד היום בבוקר, ומהמכון לרפואה משפטית באבו כביר נמסר כי הגופות זוהו באופן ודאי. הלויותיהם של שלשת הנערים הנרצחים מתקיימות רק לאחר בדיקה נוספת של רופאי המכון, שניסו לקבוע בוודאות מתי נרצחו השלושה ומה הייתה סיבת המוות.

Last night, around 6:00 PM, the news reached the Law Institute that the three bodies of the boys had been found. The team, so skilled in such difficult cases, prepared to receive them.

When were they murdered?

After the field tests, the bodies were received at the institute around 9:30 PM, and the tests for definitive identification began immediately and ended early in the morning - 12 hours after they were found.

The identification was made possible through DNA samples and dental radiographs, and was conducted under the supervision of Dr. Chen Kugel, director of the institute, with ZAKA rabbis also accompanying the procedure.

The institute is currently working to gather as many details as possible that will shed light on the circumstances of the boys' deaths. This is only an external examination and not an autopsy.

The questions that the institute's doctors are still trying to answer are: When were the three killed? Was it near the time of their kidnapping? The exact cause of death is also being examined.

At the end of the procedure, the grieving families will receive an update and answers to these questions and then set off to accompany the three on their final journey.