VIDEO. Hamas attacks: Israeli army calls in archaeologists to identify victims

“I never thought that I would have to do something like this, and I don’t think anyone in the world thought that something like this would happen,” says Moshe Ajami, deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). At Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) are helping Israeli soldiers dismantle the remains of burnt-out shelters from the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, trying to identify residents still missing.

Open-air crime scene excavations are unusual for these archaeologists. “We dig, we extract material and we filter it,” says Ari Levy, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority who is involved in excavations in the south. “We find different objects there, starting with letters and all sorts of small jewelry. We collect them, methodically record them and pass the information on to the family,” explains Ari Levy. Since the start of the searches, 10 victims have been identified. “We know who we are looking for, in many cases we know their faces, their names, their families. The feeling we experience is difficult because we cannot detach ourselves emotionally. But we know that we did something important, and the families of the missing have a kind of anchor to hold on to,” the archaeologist continues.