Yedioth Ahronoth Reveals: An Informant for the Shabak Retrieved the Body of Oron Shaul from Gaza and Transferred It to Israel

SadaNews Translation - The Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth revealed on Friday, in an investigation it published, the details of the recovery of the body of Israeli soldier Oron Shaul who was killed in the 2014 war in the Gaza Strip, and whose body was then kidnapped by Hamas in the al-Tuffah neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.

According to the Hebrew newspaper, as translated by SadaNews, days before the ceasefire came into effect in January 2025, the Israeli army received information through a computer from a Hamas activist that sent a message to a certain entity to convey to Azuddin al-Haddad, the commander of the Gaza Brigade, that there was a detainee in Israel, arrested from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, who had information about the location of Oron Shaul's body.

The newspaper indicated that the Israeli army conducted intensive investigations with its detainees, until it reached a suspect, and after a period of intense pressure on him, he confessed that he knew someone who kept the body in an ice cream freezer on a lower floor of his house in the al-Tuffah neighborhood.

The Shabak carried out a major deception operation to ensnare the Palestinian named Ibrahim al-Hilu, making him work for it after he had moved to Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, without realizing he was working for the Shabak, as a trader, and opened a warehouse for him on Salah al-Din Street. Shortly after, he was kidnapped in a special operation after being lured to the warehouse at night.

According to the newspaper, al-Hilu was interrogated and did not confess, and then could not withstand the severity of the interrogation, confessing that the body was in a fridge beneath his house.

At the time when Israeli forces were withdrawing from Gaza City, there were fears of conducting a special operation that might delay the ceasefire after an agreement was reached to recover many Israeli prisoners.

It was later decided to send an informant working for the Shabak to go to al-Hilu's house to confirm the presence of the body, and when he arrived, he found the fridge securely closed. He informed the officer in charge, who asked him to return home to bring some tools necessary to open the fridge, and they agreed to shell open areas with artillery, so that no one would hear the moment the fridge was opened with the heavy tools. When it was opened, the body was found and carried by the informant for a distance of one and a half kilometers until he reached the Israeli forces, and the informant was transported with the body of Oron Shaul, who had been held in Gaza for 10 years, into Israel by a Namer vehicle.