Israel-Hamas war: Mutilated, charred remains bear witness to the extreme barbarity of militant attack
Day after day, the victims of the Hamas terror attacks arrive at the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Tel Aviv.
For the scientists trying to identify them, it’s heavy work and it’s getting a lot harder.
Warning: This report contains images of human remains and graphic descriptions of injuries – which some people might find distressing
It’s not full corpses they are receiving anymore, but charred fragments of bones.
Many of those killed were mutilated, their bodies burned and it is harrowing work for the team to try and identify them.
Chen Kugel, the director of the centre, greets us with warmth and a smile.
It is amazing he’s able to muster one.
He hasn’t stopped for weeks.
But when he finally does, he breaks down, distressed at the growing realisation that there are some individuals they just won’t be able to identify.
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Trying to identify the remains is harrowing work
“Professionally I want to bring every one of them to the grave to give them the last honour,” he tells me, as his eyes fill with tears.
He, like everyone here, feels a huge sense of duty to the families to provide them with news and hopefully, some closure.
Mr Kugel has witnessed a pattern of brutality that haunts him and it’s on a massive scale.
As we sit in his office, he starts to show us a series of images that highlight the extreme barbarity of the attack on 7 October by Hamas, which triggered the latest conflict.
“So many bodies were shot. But before they were shot, they were cuffed for execution style.”
Chen Kugel has witnessed a pattern of brutality that haunts him
Some have stab wounds, others have their hands tied with electric cables.
There is a child beheaded.
He shows us one image of a victim with stab wounds on his back and head.
“You can see that the pelvis is shattered. These are bullets inside. So he was shot, he was stabbed, he was burned. And then he was run over by a car.”
It is stomach-turning.
I too feel my eyes fill with tears as I look at the horrendous nature of some of the injuries.
Many of those killed were mutilated, their bodies burned
Many of the bodies were burned.
“It’s like a crematorium,” he says.
It’s bleached the bones.
Downstairs, Dr Nurit Bublil is looking at some of the toughest cases.
She’s in charge of the DNA lab where they’re looking at tiny bits of tissue.
Dr Nurit Bublil says Hamas ‘slaughtered our people and they enjoyed every minute of it’
But it’s a large item of evidence that stops her in her tracks – and me.
She lifts a bag and shows me a baby’s mattress. It’s covered in blood.
“This baby was probably stabbed in his own bed.”
You can hear rage in Dr Bublil’s tone as she describes the attackers.
“This is just genocide. For hours, they slaughtered our people and they enjoyed every minute of it.”
The team is anxious families get the chance to give their loved ones a proper burial
On the ground floor, we meet Michal Peer, an anthropologist.
She shows us boxes she says are filled with debris, metal, glass and even pieces of mobile phones that people were holding onto at the time.
Her job she says is to separate out the bones from the non-bones and try to trace who they might belong to.
She’s only 30-years-old.
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Michal Peer says dealing with the remains of children is ‘really difficult’
“Before this event, I had never had to deal with the remains of children,” she says.
“This is the first time and it’s really difficult.
“It’s hard to disconnect from it, but you have to because even if it’s the smallest piece of bone that we can send up to the lab for them to try to pull a DNA profile, that’s the whole reason I got into this field, for the families who are looking for their loved ones and wanting to know what happened to them.
“I want to let those families have the chance to give their loved ones a proper burial.”
It is slow, detailed, technical work and it is vital, for the families and the nation.
World
Stock markets slump for second day running after Trump announces tariffs – in worst day for indexes since COVID
Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.
While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.
As it happened: Worst week’s trading in five years
All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.
The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.
Read more: What’s a bear market?
Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.
Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.
The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.
And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.
US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters
Trump holds trade deal talks – reports
It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indian and Israeli representatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.
The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.
Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.
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Do Trump’s tariffs add up?
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China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.
Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.
Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.
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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”
World
Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem
South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.
His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
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The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
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