Few experts carry more weight on October 7 than Prof. Chen Kugel, and what he told a forensic conference in Jerusalem is hard to hear. The director of Israel's National Center of Forensic Medicine described evidence that, in some locations, accelerants were added to fires set in safe rooms, creating what he called a kind of crematorium. According to Kugel, soot found in victims' airways is the proof: it means those people were still breathing while the flames spread. For the families still carrying the trauma of that day, it's a brutal confirmation delivered by a scientist who examined the remains himself.

Kugel's conclusions rest on autopsies of more than 900 bodies, with his team reporting a 100 percent identification rate, a remarkable result given how many remains were charred beyond recognition and had to be matched through DNA. He described bound victims who were executed, mutilations, and killing methods that varied from one location to another, which he reads as signs of organized operational planning rather than spontaneous violence. That assessment is consistent with what he and his colleagues said in forensic briefings back in 2023, when journalists were first shown images from the autopsy rooms. As with any expert testimony, the judgment about intent is his professional interpretation, but the physical evidence behind it, from charred remains to DNA, is exactly what has people asking how deep the planning really went.