Israel-Gaza updates: Netanyahu says war to continue 'on all fronts'

The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday informed the families of Ron Sherman, Nick Beiser and Elia Toledano that it is not possible to determine what caused their deaths, ABC News has learned.

Sherman, Beiser and Toledano were among the more than 200 people taken hostage by militants during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7. The IDF recovered the bodies of the three abductees from a Hamas tunnel in the city of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip on Dec. 14, near where Ahmed Randour, who commanded Hamas' forces in the northern part of the enclave, had been killed a month earlier.

ABC News has learned that an investigation subsequently concluded the IDF did not know there were hostages in the area at the time it attacked the tunnel where Randor was staying and that the IDF discovered the bodies while conducting scans of the tunnel afterward.

ABC News has learned that a pathological report showed no signs of trauma or gunshots on the three bodies, and it could not be ruled out or confirmed whether they were killed as a result of suffocation, poisoning or due to an attack by the IDF or Hamas. Samples were taken to conduct a further examination.

-ABC News' Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor

Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the scenes in the war-torn Gaza Strip as "gut-wrenching" and said Palestinians need a state of their own but must "work with Israel to be effective."

Blinken said the Palestinian Authority, which exercises partial civil control over areas in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, could lead such a state but only "with the help of Israel, not with its active opposition."

"The question now is, is Israeli society prepared to engage on these? Is it prepared to have that mindset?" Blinken asked. "You're not going to get the genuine security you need absent that [Palestinian state]."

-ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Morgan Winsor

The Israel Defense Forces said early Wednesday that it has killed a top Palestinian militant in an airstrike in the occupied West Bank, averting "an imminent, large-scale terrorist attack" he was allegedly planning.

Ahmed Abdullah Abu Shalal and members of his terrorist cell were "eliminated in a precision airstrike" at the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, according to the IDF. It was unclear exactly how many individuals were killed in the strike.

"Abdullah was responsible for carrying out a number of terrorist attacks over the last year, including the shooting attack in the Shimon HaTzadik neighborhood in Jerusalem last April during which two Jerusalem residents were injured," the IDF said in a statement. "Additionally, he was responsible for the bombing attack against IDF soldiers last October during which a soldier was injured."

"Under Abdullah's leadership, the terrorist infrastructure in the Balata camp in Nablus has received funding and guidance from Iranian sources who are in cooperation with terrorist headquarters in both the Gaza Strip and abroad," the IDF added.

-ABC News' Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor

Itay Svirsky, 35, and Yossi Sharabi, 53 -- two hostages who appeared in a video released by Hamas earlier this week -- have been confirmed dead, according to Kibbutz Be'eri.

"Their bodies are in the hands of Hamas, we will demand their return with the rest of our abductees," Kibbutz Be'eri, one of the communities attacked by the terrorist group on Oct. 7, said in a statement on Tuesday. "Our hearts are with the families in their immense pain. May they rest in peace."

Svirsky was at his parents' home in the kibbutz when he was abducted, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

Hamas released a video on Sunday showing the two men, as well as 26-year-old Noa Argamani, while calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war on Gaza.

Following the release of the hostage video, the IDF said they told the men's families that "there is grave concern for their lives" and denied Hamas' claims that Israeli forces shot Svirsky.