‘Difficult nights, mental toll’: Institute of Forensic Medicine head speaks on identifying hostages

In addition to identifying hostages, Institute of Forensic Medicine Director Dr. Chen Kugel spoke about the moment he found himself identifying the body of Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar.

Two years after the October 7 massacre and a month after the signing of the US-brokered ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, another slain hostage, Lior Rudaeff, was identified at the Institute of Forensic Medicine following the recovery of his remains that had been held in the Gaza Strip since the massacre.

Dr. Chen Kugel, the director of Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, spoke to Walla in his first interview since the current round of hostage return efforts began.

“Almost every evening, we prepare to receive additional hostages. Sometimes it turns out that these are not our hostages, and sometimes nothing arrives,” he said. “It’s a very stressful period, both personally and publicly. But we are happy to be here, as difficult as it sounds, to close the circle, again and again, until the last fallen hostage.

“There is always a blur between personal and professional life. We always need to be ready to be called in,” Kugel added. “Your whole life turns upside down, and so does the life of all the staff preparing to receive the fallen. It disrupts our daily routine, and when remains arrive at the institute, everything stops.

“Typically, 13 people work on each remains, including CT technicians, imaging unit heads, two dentists – one photographing and the other examining -, additional technicians, lab personnel, secretaries who record and document what we say in the rooms, and anthropologists. We also have military rabbinate personnel, police, etc.”

From the moment the remains arrive at the institute, identification is conducted through three methods: dental records, CT scans, and DNA testing.

“Even if we identify the remains using one method, it’s not enough until we have definitive identification. In most cases, whenever possible, we perform all three methods to get a final result.” According to Kugel, this is because the “findings” often arrive in an unorganized manner, and no one knows to whom they belong.

“Therefore, we also conduct anthropological exams to try to determine what caused the person’s death. This is what we’ve been doing over the past two years.”

During the current stage of the release of hostage remains, the institute’s employees prepared several times to receive bodies that ultimately turned out to be not Israelis, but Gazan citizens. In such cases, the disappointment is immense.

“This time, it’s like playing a roulette game, unlike previous rounds when we had a fairly good idea of who it was. Here, not only do we not know, but when we discover early in the identification process that it’s not one of our fallen hostages, we feel disappointed. Most of the institute’s work is done in the morning and afternoon, but recently, especially in the evenings and nights, the staff works around the clock to close the circle for the families and for the country. Still, we hope that soon all the circles will be closed, and we are contributing our small part to that.”

‘You can tell early when hostage remains don’t belong to an Israeli’

“You can tell relatively early that it’s not an Israeli,” he explained. “If it’s different clothing, teeth, the condition of the remains, body type, etc. Our anthropologists can also determine the age, height, and other details of the remains. This is their part, so they are very important in the identification process.”

According to estimates, Kugel and his colleagues have handled over 2,000 bodies, as revealed by his colleague, Dr. Nurit Bublil, director of the laboratory division at the Institute of Forensic Medicine. She shared that throughout the entire war, they continued to examine remains that came from Gaza.

“It’s impossible to get used to talking about this; it’s very difficult,” emphasized Kugel. “We’re dealing with a national event, and everyone is waiting and expecting news from us. People stand and pay respects outside the institute as the coffins arrive. We also want to notify the families that a particular fallen hostage has returned home. It’s mentally tough, very exhausting. The calls, the uncertainty, and the high concentration needed for the work. And it’s done around the clock, especially since the war began. The Health Ministry provides free mental health support to every staff member, according to their preference, so there’s always somewhere to turn.”

The Institute’s Major Achievements

October 7 advanced the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir, both in terms of the Health Ministry, but especially the government. “The institute itself is now leading forensic medicine in Israel. It’s crucial for our country to have a large and significant forensic medicine institute, and even the higher-ups understand this. Currently, a new institute is being built in Assaf Harofeh, with plans to move there in 2027, and it will provide us with great strength alongside the innovations that have already been introduced and invested in the current building in Abu Kabir.”

Various media outlets report that when the fallen arrive at the institute, the countdown begins for their identification. In most cases, identification can happen within a few hours, but it can also take much longer.

“It depends on the condition of the bodies we receive. Extracting DNA from bones takes time, sometimes more, sometimes less, and it depends on the findings. I can tell you that during the events of October 7, there was significant difficulty identifying the bodies because we received charred bodies, some in a state of decomposition, and it was very difficult, but we managed to do it,” he detailed.

“It’s important to understand that our daily work is to examine bodies that arrive within hours or a few days in rare cases. Here, we’re dealing with a two-year period, and that makes a significant difference in how the remains were preserved, under what conditions, and how that affects the identification process.”

Identifying Sinwar’s body

Identifying former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was a defining moment for Dr. Kuger: “Once you’re with the body and examining it, you don’t think at that moment that you’re examining someone very significant. We also had to understand what caused his death. Obviously, he had a head injury, but we tried to understand what preceded what.”

When we finished, a colleague said to me: ‘Do you understand who you’ve examined now? The man who is responsible for the massacre of thousands of people.’ You don’t think about it while working, just as with the good people who were killed in the war, you just check and identify. After that, at home, you continue to read about him and his family; it goes with you, and then you process what you go through at the institute.”

And while the identification of good people is what makes this job so difficult, it also made him discover the kindness that exists in the people of Israel: “We checked on a lot of deceased people here, including children, and it’s very difficult. Mainly because we saw the suffering of the families and the tragic events that happened to us, but it was then that we discovered the kindness of the citizens of Israel. People volunteer here and bring us food. I remember they brought us a Friday meal to the institute. I had to say ‘congratulations’ and ‘thank you,’ and I couldn’t do it. I started crying and couldn’t hold back,” he concluded.