What do their toxicology reports show? It would be typical of Hamas to drug a hostage then release them in the area of IDF soldiers so they’d perhaps ignore commands or behave suspiciously or as expected of a civilian.
I think that it is very possible they were being used as “bait”.
Last week 9 soldiers were killed after they were lured into a trap. I believe they were part of the same group. This would cause a lot of paranoia.
All I can do is pray for peace and comfort for all involved.
My guess is Hamas put them in their gear and weapons and then staged them in some way to be found and shot.
They may have been drugged, as you say, and unable to respond to commands from the IDF appropriately.
Makes sense. The hostages (during the recent ceasefire) were drugged so they'll be sedated before they were released to Israel.