Only 51 of the 101 Israeli captives currently held by the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip are alive, Israel Hayom reported on Sunday.
The report is based on a statement made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in September in which he said that half of the hostages were alive.
Hamas is holding 101 Israelis captive in Gaza, and this report indicates that Israel believes 50 of them are no longer alive. In contrast, only 37 hostages whose bodies were held by Hamas were officially declared dead.
According to the report, these figures are based on information gathered through various channels since the October 7 attack, from open sources and intelligence gathering.
Israel has firm forensic and Halachic information on the death of 37 abductees, definitive information it lacks on the other 13 it believes are no longer alive, and therefore, they have not been officially declared dead in captivity.
On the remaining 51 captives who are estimated to be alive, there is no continuous and complete information. Considering the heavy fighting in Gaza and the poor conditions in which the abductees have been held for more than a year, the real number of living hostages may be even smaller.
During the October 7 attack, Hamas and other terror groups abducted 251 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip, including children, women, elderly people, and dead bodies. Of them, 117 hostages had been returned alive to Israel, with 105 being released in a prisoner exchange deal, four released by Hamas unilaterally and eight rescued by the IDF.
37 bodies of hostages were returned to Israel, with three of the hostages killed by IDF friendly fire, and the bodies of 34 hostages were returned through military operations.
Israel has repeatedly vowed to bring back all the hostages, either through military operations or negotiations with Hamas. After multiple recent reports of possible emerging deals brokered by the US, Qatar, or Egypt, it appears that Hamas is steadfast in its demand for full Israeli surrender and withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in return for any captive release deal, a demand Israel says it cannot accept as it would stop its counterterrorism campaign in the Strip and enable Hamas to regroup and threaten the Jewish State’s exist again.
