The six Israeli hostages whose bodies were found in a Hamas tunnel underneath Gaza Saturday had been shot in the head in the last 48 hours, according to autopsy reports Sunday.

As Breitbart News reported, the Israeli military identified the hostages Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Master Sergeant Ori Danino

Hamas murdered the hostages in the belief that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were closing in. According to IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the soldiers did not know the hostages’ exact location but had rescued one hostage nearby last week and were fighting above ground at the location.

“According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” Hagari said Sunday morning.

Ynetnews.com reported:

All six hostages whose bodies were discovered and recovered from Gaza on Sunday were found with gunshot wounds to their head and other areas, their autopsies showed.
According to the post-mortem, they were executed no more than 48 hours before being found and signs of neglect in captivity were found on their bodies.
Except for one of the hostages, who showed signs of being bound, no evidence of torture was found. However, the condition of their bodies indicated systematic neglect, including a lack of hygiene over a long period. Additionally, indications were present of previous injuries sustained during their abduction, which had been treated over time.

Israel’s Army Radio noted that this is not the first time during the war that Palestinian terrorists have murdered Israeli hostages to prevent their rescue. Notably, in the infamous 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, terrorists murdered Israeli athletes they had taken hostage as West German police attempted a rescue.

Separately, on Sunday, three Israeli police officers were murdered near a checkpoint in the West Bank region of Judea in a drive-by shooting by a Palestinian terrorist.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.