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259 days have passed since Hamas’ dawn attack on Israel.
About 250 Israelis were taken hostage.
Around 50 of those captured are now believed to be still alive, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Over seven months have passed since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out. On October 7 carried out terrorist-labeled Hamas an attack on Israel in a dawn raid.
In total, around 1,200 people died and around 250 were kidnapped in the attack.
Since then, many hostages have been released, most of them in exchanges during a ceasefire in November and December 2023.
During the Israeli military’s attempt to free the hostages, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed. An independent UN report shows that both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes during the war in Gaza.
The report also states that Israel committed crimes against humanity with reference to the large number of civilian victims in Gaza. Israel is also accused of murder, sexual violence, torture and having used starvation as a method of war.
In early June, four Israeli hostages were freed, but many more have been confirmed dead in recent months.
It deepens concerns among the relatives that time is running out and that a safe return of the hostages could be at odds with Israel’s wartime goal of eliminating Hamas.
– What is happening now is that the families have the opposite feeling. It’s about who will get a phone call saying that the body of your family member has been found or that he has been declared dead, says Roman, who has a relative left as a hostage.
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full screen Protest against Benjamin Netanyahu in mid-June. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg / AP
Data on the number of dead
116 people are said to still be held captive.
But mediators in the hostage negotiations and a US intelligence official say the number of hostages still alive could be as low as 50 people. It reports The Wall Street Journal.
That would mean that 66 of those still held hostage could be dead. Which is 25 more than what Israel has publicly stated, according to the newspaper.
Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Saturday that they cannot guarantee that they will bring home all the hostages alive.
“Extremely worried”
Hagai Levine, head of the medical team for the Forum for Hostage and Disappeared Families is concerned about the situation.
– I think we should be extremely worried. It seems like every week more hostages die, are in danger or are very sick, he says.
Izhar Lifshitz’s 84-year-old father, Oded Lifshitz, is one of those held hostage in Gaza. Those from the hostages released in November stated that they saw him injured but alive at the time.
But since then, Izhar Lifshitz has heard nothing more.
– We cling to the hope that he may be alive. But in our guts we know that elderly people, injured people, people taken more than eight months ago, such people even in Israel would need to change medicine several times, a doctor’s treatment. And they don’t get that there, says Lifshitz to The Wall Street Journal.
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full screenProtest to free the hostages. Photo: Leo Correa / AP