"I never thought I'd have to do something like this, and I don't think anyone in the world thought something like this would happen," said Moshe Ajami, deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel are helping Israeli soldiers sift through the remains of homes burned after Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 in an attempt to identify residents still missing.
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An unusual excavation of open-air crime scenes for these archaeologists. "We dig, extract the material and filter it," says Ari Levy, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority who is helping with the excavations in the south. "There are various objects, starting with letters and all kinds of small jewels. We collect it, write it down methodically and transfer the information to the family," Levy said. Since the beginning of the search, 10 victims have been identified. "We know who we are looking for, we know their faces in many cases, their names, their families. The feeling we have is difficult because we can't detach ourselves emotionally. But we know that we have done something important and the families of the disappeared have a kind of anchor to hold onto," the archaeologist continues.