As few as 50 hostages held by Hamas are still alive, US officials estimate
US officials believe that as few as 50 of the 116 hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are still alive, according to a new report.
The assessment, based in part on Israeli intelligence, indicated that 66 of the remaining hostages are now dead, mediators in the hostage talks and a US official told the Wall Street Journal.
Israel previously estimated that 41 remaining hostages were no longer alive, while Hamas has insisted that it does not know how many hostages are alive or dead.
“I think we should be extremely worried,” Hagai Levine, the head of the medical team for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, told the outlet.
“It seems like every week more hostages are dying or getting in danger or very sick.”
Israel uses an expert committee of medical experts that reviews classified intelligence in order to determine the hostages’ status, the Journal reported.
“We were able to determine the death of people that we know were alive and we know how their life ended over there,” said Ofer Merin, a member of the committee and director general at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
“We sit very quietly. We look at each frame. We listen to what happened. And we gather all this information.”
The military has also tried to determine the fate of the hostages by tracing DNA found in Hamas’ underground tunnels in the Gaza Strip, Tamir Hayman, former head of Israeli military intelligence Tamir Hayman, said.
The estimated number of dead hostages is growing due to the conditions of their captivity combined with the injuries they suffered on Oct. 7, and possible pre-existing health conditions, the Journal reported.
“We hang on to the hope that he might be alive,” said Izhar Lifshitz, whose 84-year-old grandfather Oded Lifshitz, is a hostage.
“But in our stomach we know that older people, wounded people, people taken more than eight months ago, people like that even in Israel would need to change their medication several times, a doctor’s treatment. And they are not getting that there,” he admitted.
The bodies of 19 hostages who were taken on Oct. 7 have been returned to Israel – including eight in the past three months.
Eight of the remaining hostages are American citizens – including three who were declared dead several months ago, the outlet added.
“Along with the significant achievement, we must honestly say we will not be able to return everyone home in this way,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said last week.
In early June, the Israeli military executed a risky operation in central Gaza that successfully rescued four hostages.
The aftermath of the daring mission, however, could make things worse for the remaining hostages who are sill alive, the Wall Street Journal suggested.
“They probably tightened up security,” said Gershon Baskin, a hostage negotiator who facilitated the 2011 deal with Hamas that freed Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit from captivity in Gaza.
“They’re looking for collaborators and any leakage of information. They may have moved hostages from above ground to underground,” he added.
“I would think that the lives of the hostages were not better off after last Saturday,” he said last week, referring to the raid on June 8.
