Greater than a fifth of the remaining hostages being held in Gaza are lifeless, in line with an inner evaluation performed by the Israeli navy.
Israeli intelligence officers have concluded that a minimum of 32 of the remaining 136 hostages captured by Hamas and its allies on Oct. 7 have died because the begin of the conflict, in line with a confidential evaluation that was reviewed by The New York Instances. The households of the 32 hostages whose deaths are confirmed have been knowledgeable, in line with 4 navy officers who spoke anonymously to be able to talk about a delicate matter.
The 4 officers stated that officers had been additionally assessing unconfirmed intelligence that indicated that a minimum of 20 different hostages could have additionally been killed.
The determine of 32 is increased than any earlier quantity the Israeli authorities have publicly disclosed of hostages who’re lifeless. In a solution to a request for remark, the Israeli navy stated that a lot of the lifeless had been killed on Oct. 7.
The information is more likely to worsen a furor in Israel, the place a debate over the federal government’s plan of action in Gaza relating to the hostages has change into divisive.
Greater than 240 hostages had been captured by Hamas and its allies throughout the Oct. 7 Hamas-led raid on southern Israel, prompting Israel to retaliate with huge airstrikes after which a floor invasion.
Roughly half of the hostages have been freed, virtually all throughout a short lived truce in November, once they had been exchanged for 240 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails.
Since that truce, the Israeli authorities has stated that its navy operations in Gaza would pave the best way to additional hostage releases. Officers have argued that each Israeli navy success locations Hamas underneath extra strain to barter one other alternate, and makes the navy higher in a position to rescue the remaining captives by drive.
However scores of survivors and households of the hostages have stated that the navy marketing campaign is endangering their family members’ lives. They need the federal government to make it a precedence to succeed in a brand new hostage deal as a substitute of urgent forward with the invasion, lest their relations be killed in crossfire. Just one hostage has been freed by an Israeli navy rescue operation. At the least three had been unintentionally killed by Israeli troopers.
Requested for remark, the Israeli navy stated in a press release that it was “deploying all obtainable assets to find and retrieve as a lot data as doable relating to the hostages at the moment held by Hamas.”
