“They are not animals or monsters, satanic enthusiasm.”

After a few hours of identifying the penultimate identity 251 kidnappedThe doctor Ricardo Nachaman A group of Spanish journalists are served in offices close to the facilities of the Forensic Unit in Tel Aviv.

If the calculations are correct, even though he does not memorize them, There are already 1,261 bodies Who directed his identification at the country’s only forensic laboratory.

The amount brings together those killed in southern Israel on October 7, 2023 The 83 hostages who never returned alive. “In just over two years since the attack, I went from working 170 hours a week to 570 hours“.

Perhaps this nightmare will end soon. This Wednesday after Confirming Dror’s identity “within just five and a half hours of work”There are only two bodies left to “return home,” as we read on posters, graffiti, badges, newspapers, televisions, handkerchiefs, shopping bags…or in every corner of this small country.

It was one of the hardest jobs at the time, besides a small job A team of only five forensic pathologists for the entire country. His wife is the Deputy Director of the DNA District, which has been an asset in this (still) eternal nightmare.

“I have never seen anything like this before. Hamas is not animals, and it is not monsters,” he explains, staring at the journalist. “Animals don’t do these things and monsters don’t exist.“No, Hamas is human, it brings out the darkest and most satanic part of man.”

“Our conclusions are true”

Aside from the human shock caused by the attack that every Jewish citizen feels, Nachman had to feel it Hone your techniqueFrom two days per corpse to 12 hours per corpse.

And this Wednesday, “We couldn’t keep the family waiting any longer, after more than two years.” To the little over five hours it had taken him last morning to get the penultimate body.

But during those two years, he had to request special permissions to access photos of that infamous day reserved for high-ranking officials in the country’s security.

“sometimes, Scientific evidence has given us unimaginable resultsHe explains, “We had to compare it with the endless amount of audio-visual material recorded by terrorists, in order to believe our conclusions.”

Add that “Brutalism is the least word.” Whatever comes to mind. “Seeing what they did to every body is unbelievable.” and Professionalism Allowing you to understand how each of the victims died, “what damage was done to them, how long it took them to die”, It allowed him to “see” what everyone had been through.

“And how cruel they were to the living, Until you kill themAnd the dead, and the desecration of their bodies Without any respect“.

Play football

This is when he explains in sterile forensic words what we will call mutilation: Women’s heads, genitals, or breastsWith whom the terrorists came to play football.

But besides all this, there is another circumstance in Nachman’s case: like almost everyone in Israel, he knew some of the victims.

“I had to get to know him my cousinAnd in My daughter’s friend’s fatherBoth were killed at the Nova Festival, where just over 10% of the 3,500 attendees were ambushed, shot, and some… Gang rape and/or burning alive with “accelerants”.

In the brutal attack organized by Hamas, in cooperation with Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups in Gaza, it is always said that about 1,200 Israelis were killed. The truth is that There were 1,182 Who were tortured, raped and slaughtered.

and Not all of them were IsraeliNor the Jews.

In fact, of the two hostage bodies remaining to be returned by the assailants, one of them is Thai. Sudthisak Rinthalak, 43 years oldWho was working in the fields of the kibbutz that had been under attack since 2017, and who was caught in the middle because of the Islamists’ eternal hatred for the State of Israel.

The other is Ran Jefeli, he was 24 years old He was originally from Meitar in southern Israel. He was a member of the Yasam Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Southern District Police on that day He was on sick leave, but when he heard the news he put on his military uniform He went south to defend his countrymen.

They both died in the same 7-O. He is the same person recently identified, Dror Or, 48, who was killed in Kibbutz Be’eri, where he lived, and His body was transferred to Gaza as a “memorial”. His wife and two children were also captured, but were released in the first partial agreement between Israel and Hamas, in November 2023.

From tomography to statement

Prime Minister’s Office, Benjamin NetanyahuOn Wednesday, he confirmed in a statement that the body handed over by Hamas on Tuesday night, as part of the ceasefire agreement, was Or’s. Army representatives informed the family That their loved ones have returned to Israel.

Nashman explains how he works under this moral pressure. The first thing is to set a Identification number Which will accompany the body to the family. Then comes the deciding factor: the CT scan.

There is a kind of “talent”describes. “It’s not about doing a virtual autopsy, we’re diagnosing through imaging.”

Accuracy lies in the details that cannot be faked. SinusesFor example. Those small hollows in the forehead that every human being has. If there were antemortem x-rays and a CT scan of the body, “Comparison generates a 100% scientific result.”.

But the most telling thing is how Nachman also became War crimes investigator.

Bias or science

Even if you receive information about how someone died, your obligation is to confirm it scientifically. “We’ve had many cases of that Hamas said nothing And we reach everyone 100% concrete proof that this was not the case“He comments.

There is a symbolic case, for which it is preferable not to mention names, although everyone in Israel knows it, because everyone knows every story.

A mother and her children were returned by terrorists Claiming that they were killed in an Israeli bombing. “The physical damage from an explosion is not the same as that from a gunfire,” he explains, evading real data. “And cremation is not the same as the damage from beheading.”

In this particular case, their analyzes revealed the truth. He added, “I did not find anything that could support what Hamas said. Quite the opposite.” There is no pounding, the bones are very good. They were killed by suffocation“, he ended by revealing.

Faced with the inevitable question of whether their reports exist State officialHe may have a political bias, Nachman responds with a certain tone of pride.

“This is a neutral forensic institute. I gain nothing by saying something that is not so. I respect my name and profession very much. I even had to go out against my own government! I went to testify against the ministry’s doctors“.

Anthropologists and archaeologists

The terrorists documented their actions on video, and are proud of their training. “They were used Accelerators to literally make objects disappear“.

In the same way that Human remains from kibbutzim They had to be recovered with the help of archaeologists, and each autopsy requires the help of anthropologists to catalog the bone fragments. “like One paragraph in the case of a girl…They learn about age, race and gender.”

Another particularly brutal definition was identity A burned woman is attached to a child of about 10 years old, both bound with wire. “Everything indicates that they tied them up while they were alive and set them on fire,” Nachman explains.

Although he could not confirm this conclusively:They couldn’t find his trachea To check the presence of soot..

The Netanyahu government confirms that it is working tirelessly for this Give a dignified burial for the two waiting hostages. In the first month and a half of the ceasefire, Hamas returned the bodies of 28 hostages in exchange for the bodies of Palestinians held by Israel.

But without completing the first part, Negotiations for the second stageWhich is considering reconstruction and forming a transitional government without Hamas. Waiting.

Like Nachman and his wife, who remained in Tel Aviv, waiting for it to be finished Longest post.