On Sunday, the war between Hamas and Israel entered its hundredth day. On both sides, the toll is heavy. On the Israeli side, at least 1,300 people died, including 160 soldiers and 36 children. In the Gaza Strip, 23,357 people, including more than 5,350 children and at least 3,250 women, have died, according to unverifiable figures from the Islamist movement.
The attack launched on October 7 from the Gaza Strip by Hamas was followed by the hostage-taking of around 250 Israelis. More than a hundred of them are still trapped in the Palestinian enclave. Israelis expressed their solidarity this Sunday with the hostages held by the Islamist movement and its allies to mark 100 days of their detention and support the mobilization of their families.
132 hostages still in Gaza
On Sunday, three Israeli hostages, two men and a woman, appeared in a video relayed by Hamas. The video gives no indication of when it was filmed. The three hostages ask the Israeli authorities in Hebrew to act for their release. One of these hostages is believed to be Noa Argamani, whose kidnapping from the Nova music festival was filmed. THE Times of Israel also gives the identity of Yossi Sharabi, 53 years old, and Itay Svirsky, 38 years old. The daily details that the 37-second video ends with a banner which reads: “Tomorrow, we will inform you of their fate.”
Of the 250 people taken hostage on October 7, around a hundred were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and under a truce at the end of November. In addition, the bodies of eight hostages were recovered by the Israeli army. According to the Israeli authorities, 132 people are still detained in Gaza, at least 25 of whom have been killed, without their bodies having been returned.
Hostages “recently dead”
The military wing of Hamas also claimed on Sunday that it had lost contact with certain hostages during operations carried out by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, specifying that they could have been killed during these operations.
“The fate of many hostages has been unknown for recent weeks, and the others have all entered the tunnel of the unknown,” said Abou Obeida, spokesman for Hamas’ military wing in a televised address. “Many of them have probably been killed recently and the others are in great danger,” for which “the leadership of the enemy and its army bears full responsibility,” he continued.
“The military operation takes time. It requires us to be precise and we adapt it according to the threats and the hostages who are on the ground,” declared Sunday the spokesperson for the IDF, the counter -Admiral Daniel Hagari. At present, neither Israel nor Hamas are suggesting the possibility of negotiations for the release of the remaining hostages. In November, an agreement under the aegis of Qatar and the United States contributed to the release of around a hundred hostages.