During the early hours of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood launched on the morning of Oct. 7 by Hamas in Israel, fighters from the Palestinian movement attacked a vehicle in the Sderot region driven by an Israeli and carrying seven Gazans who had come to work legally in Israel. This was reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz on Tuesday, recalling that the fate of these Palestinians remains unknown, some having probably been killed and their bodies still not identified.

On Oct. 7, Hamas commandos infiltrated from Gaza into southern Israel and launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped at the time, 116 are still being held in Gaza, 42 of whom have died, according to the Israeli army. The Israeli offensive in Gaza has so far killed 38,243 people, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry of the Gaza government.

Gazans who had work permits

With photos and videos to support this, the left-wing Israeli daily describes "a gray van, under a bridge, with its driver motionless." "The fate of the passengers in the gray van has been unknown for months," added Haaretz. According to the outlet, the driver is an Israeli, Sammi Elgargawi, 52, a professional driver from the Bedouin village of Wadi al-Naam in the eastern Negev. The seven passengers are Gazans from Beit Lahia. They are Hashem Barawi, Saleh Abdel Dib, Ismail Abu Rakba, Souhail Masri, Khoury al-Masri, Sleiman al-Atar and Zayed Ghanem, all relatives.

"They had permits to enter Israel, where they were working in fields in the south," said journalist Bar Peleg. They were on their way when the sirens sounded, following the launch of the Hamas operation. "The vehicle never made it past the Sha'ar Hanegev intersection, one of the bloodiest that day," Haaretz reported.

But what exactly happened? According to an Israeli military source citing an army investigation, five of the seven Gazans were killed, as well as the Israeli driver. The other two are said to have returned to Gaza with Palestinian fighters, the daily writes. A total of 33 people, including ten members of the Israeli security forces, were killed at this intersection. Nine bodies of Palestinian attackers were also found at the scene, according to two Israeli researchers. However, the seven Gazan workers are not included in this count.

Five bodies at Sde Teiman military base

Citing security sources, Haaretz claims that the Palestinians were not involved in the fighting and did not return to Gaza. "One possible explanation is that Hamas terrorists killed them, probably because of the van's Israeli license plate. It is also possible that the terrorists spared them after learning that they were Gazan," the daily writes. It explains that it obtained video footage that it claims shows Palestinian fighters "pulling two passengers out of the vehicle. Both are alive and standing. But what happened to them afterward remains unknown," it says.

What is certain, according to Haaretz, is that the body of the Israeli driver was returned to his family 15 days later. The daily says it contacted the Israeli army twice in March and June to inquire about the fate of the seven Gazans and whether, if they died, their bodies would be in the hands of the Israeli authorities. The army initially claimed not to be in possession of the bodies of the seven Gazans, before retracting its statement and stating in early July that five of the Gazans had been killed and that their bodies were at the Sde Teiman military base where the remains of about 1,500 Hamas fighters killed in the Oct. 7 attack are located. "Which five Gazans are we talking about? At the moment, we don't know. What will happen to their bodies? That's for the government to decide," the Israeli army said, according to Haaretz .

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.