Israel has referred to as securing the liberty of the hostages kidnapped to Gaza a key objective in its warfare towards Hamas, so many within the nation have been shocked on Tuesday when it emerged that a minimum of a fifth of the captives have been already lifeless.
The information was prone to worsen a furor in Israel, the place a debate over the federal government’s plan of action in Gaza concerning the hostages has change into divisive.
Israeli intelligence officers have concluded that a minimum of 30 of the remaining 136 hostages captured by Hamas and its allies on Oct. 7 have died because the begin of the warfare, in response to a confidential evaluation that was reviewed by The New York Times.
The our bodies of two different lifeless Israelis, killed in 2014 throughout a earlier warfare between Israel and Hamas, have been held within the territory ever since, bringing the whole variety of slain hostages inside Gaza to a minimum of 32.
The Israeli authorities late on Tuesday launched a press release saying that solely 31 had been confirmed lifeless; the discrepancy between the 2 numbers couldn’t be instantly reconciled.
“We have informed 31 families that their captured loved ones are no longer among the living and that we have pronounced them dead,” Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the army’s chief spokesman, mentioned Tuesday after The Times printed a report concerning the beforehand undisclosed hostage deaths.
Four officers mentioned that Israeli intelligence officers have been additionally assessing unconfirmed data that indicated that a minimum of 20 different hostages might have additionally been killed.
Some of the lifeless have been killed inside Israel on Oct. 7. Their deaths have been unconfirmed on the time and so they have been counted among the many hostages, however their our bodies have been taken by Hamas to Gaza, in response to two of the officers.
Others have been injured through the Hamas-led assault and died of their accidents after being kidnapped to Gaza, the officers mentioned. Others nonetheless, the officers added, have been killed by Hamas as soon as inside Gaza.
At least three hostages have been killed by the Israeli army throughout its floor operations. Another was killed throughout a failed rescue operation. Israeli troopers discovered the our bodies of some hostages, intact and with out exterior accidents, contained in the warren of tunnels Hamas has dug beneath Gaza. The military has but to make clear the causes of these deaths.
The determine of 32 deaths is larger than any earlier quantity the Israeli authorities have publicly disclosed.
In January, some relations stormed a gathering at Israel’s Parliament to demand that lawmakers take higher motion to safe the captives’ launch. That protest and comparable demonstrations in current months have helped expose a societal rift between those that help making a cope with Hamas to safe the captives’ launch and those that search the militant group’s complete destruction.
More than 240 hostages have been captured by Hamas and its allies through the Oct. 7 raid on southern Israel, prompting Israel to retaliate with large airstrikes after which a floor invasion. Roughly half of the hostages have been freed, virtually all throughout a brief truce in November, once they have been exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails.
Since that truce, the Israeli authorities has mentioned that its army operations in Gaza would pave the best way to additional hostage releases. Officials have argued that each Israeli army success locations Hamas underneath extra stress to barter one other trade, and makes the army higher in a position to rescue the remaining captives by pressure.
But scores of survivors and households of the hostages have mentioned that the army marketing campaign is endangering their family members’ lives. They need the federal government to make it a precedence to achieve a brand new hostage deal as an alternative of urgent forward with the invasion, lest their family be killed within the crossfire. Only one hostage has been freed by an Israeli army rescue operation.
The debate over the hostages has change into significantly acute in current days, as negotiations over one other cease-fire deal — mediated by Egypt and Qatar — have gathered momentum.
Egypt and Qatar have negotiated with the leaders of Hamas on a proposal backed by the United States that would briefly cease the warfare, free the remaining hostages there in trade for Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, and permit extra meals, water, medication and different provides into the territory.
On Tuesday, Hamas mentioned it had obtained the proposal and delivered a response to the mediators, however didn’t elaborate.
Right-wing members of Israel’s ruling coalition have threatened to depart Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s authorities if he agrees to a deal that permits Hamas to stay in energy in trade for the liberty of all of the remaining hostages.
But different members of his coalition, together with a centrist former common, Gadi Eisenkot, have urged that releasing the hostages is a extra necessary objective than additional army positive aspects, and that the 2 objectives are mutually incompatible.
Asked for remark, the Israeli army mentioned in a press release that it was “deploying all available resources to locate and retrieve as much information as possible regarding the hostages currently held by Hamas.”
A spokeswoman for the principle alliance of hostage households, Liat Bell Sommer, mentioned the alliance was searching for a direct deal.
“We are aware that there are bodies in Hamas captivity. We are also aware that every day the hostages are held in Hamas tunnels is a death sentence to them,” Ms. Sommer mentioned.
Other hostages might have additionally already died, however the army has but to declare them lifeless as a result of it wants to achieve absolute proof earlier than telling their households, in response to Avi Kalo, who led a army intelligence division that handled prisoners of warfare and lacking individuals.
“When it comes to the decision about whether to declare a prisoner of war, or a missing person, dead, Israeli intelligence needs 100 percent certainty,” mentioned Mr. Kalo.
“Such a terrible message must not be conveyed except in the case of absolute and final knowledge,” he added.
The Israeli army’s evaluation didn’t conclude that any of the lifeless hostages have been killed in Israeli strikes. But a few of the hostages freed in November have mentioned that they concern these nonetheless in Gaza may very well be killed in Israeli salvos. At least one freed hostage mentioned the relentless Israeli bombardment at occasions felt as menacing because the menace posed by her captors.
“Many times I told myself that, in the end, I will die from Israel’s missiles and not from Hamas,” mentioned Sahar Kalderon, talking in an interview final December, weeks after being launched. Her father stays captured inside Gaza.
“What about my father, who has been left behind?” she mentioned within the interview. “I ask of everyone who sees this: Please, stop this war; get all the hostages out.”
Reporting was contributed by Johnatan Reiss, Aaron Boxerman, Gabby Sobelman and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/02/07/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
