Parents who lost children on 7 October gathered in Jerusalem for an international conference and shared testimony about what forensic identification has meant to their families, with one father urging that the evidence be brought before a global audience.
Eyal Eshel, whose daughter Roni was killed at the Nahal Oz military base, has been pressing authorities to release autopsy records that document the attacks. Addressing an audience of forensic professionals at the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, he put forward the position that autopsy records from 7 October could help people around the world comprehend the extent of what occurred that day. Identifying himself in his remarks as the father of Roni, a surveillance soldier who he said laid down her life shielding communities near Gaza and military personnel before perishing in a fire, he called on those tasked with conveying the events of that date to distribute the documentation as broadly as possible. His appeal to the wider public centred on a direct engagement with the images and words being presented.
For Orly Cohen, the identification work carried a weight that extended beyond professional duty or communal obligation, reaching into her personal life. Her son Amit, along with his partner Norelle Mansouri and Mansouri's sister Roya, lost their lives in an attack at the Nova music festival. Cohen acknowledged the work of the identification teams, noting that their efforts had brought answers to families who had been left waiting without certainty. Her commendation covered both the empathy they brought to their work and the commitment they showed in carrying it out.
Kugel, who holds the directorship of Israel's National Centre of Forensic Medicine, outlined how the operation got under way before authorities had put together a full accounting of who was missing. Efforts to name those affected were under way even as responders worked to gauge how far-reaching the event had been.
Portions of the material under examination turned out to be charred bone fragments in such a delicate state that any contact caused them to fall apart. Testimony from Kugel pointed to findings he interpreted as showing that accelerants had been applied intentionally, both to intensify the burning and to destroy the remains.
Temperatures reaching above 800 degrees Celsius posed particular obstacles for DNA analysis, as Dr. Nurit Bublil of the same centre outlined in her account of the findings. Across certain testing sites, the available skeletal material amounted to no more than two bones per specimen. Pinning down identities required multiple rounds of forensic testing alongside a cross-referencing of various data sources. Bublil indicated that the data pointed toward deliberate organisation and coordinated prior planning.
When standard dental X-rays fell short of the diagnostic detail required, CT imaging became the method of choice for the teams involved. Part of the proceedings addressed how remains are to be collected, preserved, and managed when mass-casualty events occur, with the aim of informing protocols for comparable situations in the future.
A brigadier general who had since stepped away from active duty, Telem, who previously held a senior position within the Israel Police Investigations and Intelligence Division, addressed what it takes to assemble an identification and investigation operation under time pressure. Coordination across several agencies unfolded as relatives waited to hear word on those involved.
Leah Goldin, whose son was Lt. Goldin, addressed how families grappling with an unresolved fate depend on having definitive answers about what happened to their loved ones.
A two-day gathering on 13 and 14 October, jointly hosted by Hadassah Medical Center and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem, is set to bring together local and overseas specialists to review the protocols that took shape following the attacks and to build more robust frameworks for handling future mass-casualty situations. Two physicians at Hadassah — Dr. Ira Titunik and Prof. Esi Sharon — have taken on responsibility for running the gathering.
