The Hamas terrorist group has informed Israel that 8 of 33 hostages scheduled for release during the Gaza cease-fire’s first phase are dead.
A spokesman for the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israel had received the information and that it “matches Israel’s intelligence.”
“So I can share with you that 25 of our hostages are alive, and eight have been killed by Hamas,” the spokesman, David Mencer, said at a virtual press conference on Jan. 27.
“Families of the hostages were informed of the status of their loved ones.”
Mencer declined to answer questions on whether Hamas had identified them by name.
“These are very real issues,” he said in response to one of the questions. “A terrorist organization has held our people for almost 500 days now, almost 500 days. Sixteen months now, these families have not been told by Hamas.
“They have not had the decency to allow one inspection, one visit by the Red Cross. So I would just ask you to have a little compassion for the families.”
Hamas has sometimes reported a hostage dead, only for the hostage to turn up alive. The process established in the negotiations will return living hostages on the list first.
Mencer gave a breakdown of all the hostages:
Seven hostages have been released so far in a little more than a week since the cease-fire went into effect, he said. There are currently 90 hostages being held by Hamas, living and dead. Of them, 87 were taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, while three have been held by Hamas since 2014.
Israel believes 35 of the remaining 90 to be dead, their bodies still held by Hamas.
One of the dead, Lt. Hadar Goldin, was kidnapped and killed by Hamas in 2014, two hours after Hamas agreed to a cease-fire, according to the Hadar Goldin Foundation, a New York-based nonprofit set up by his family to work at securing the return of his body to Israel for burial.
Of the 87 taken hostage on Oct. 7, 2023, 81 are male and six are female, Mencer said. He included with the women two children under age 5 still held by Hamas, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.
Seventy-seven are Israeli nationals, some of whom also hold other nationalities. Of the 10 non-Israelis, eight are Thai, one is Nepalese, and one is Tanzanian, he said.
So far, 165 hostages have been recovered, 124 alive—most of those during a short cease-fire exchange in November 2023—and 41 were dead, “killed by Hamas,” Mercer said.
“Yes, the agreement has come at a heavy price,” he said. “Israel is releasing convicted terrorists, but Israel has a moral and ethical obligation to do everything in its power to return all the hostages, the living and the deceased.
“We will not rest until Hamas has released every one of them and they are all home.”
Hostage families who had been in contact with the government’s hostage point man, Gal Hirsh, said they were told the Hamas list did not contain names, only numbers, according to The Times of Israel.
Hamas was required to provide information about the hostages’ status as part of its obligations under the deal with Israel signed earlier this month.
Hostage families were told the information lined up with the Israeli intelligence’s own assessments. Some families suspect, based on that, that their relatives are dead.
Yizhar Lifshitz, whose father, Oded Lifshitz, 84, was taken as a hostage, said: “There’s grave concern for his life after this last indication. The last sign of life for him was on Day 25.”
At that point, Yizhar Lifshitz said, he was being held in the same apartment with someone from his kibbutz. “But he didn’t feel well. They took him, and he’s basically disappeared since then, from us and probably from Hamas too. It doesn’t bode well.”
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari said on Jan. 26 there were “grave concerns” for the fate of the Bibas children and their mother, Shiri Bibas. He said Israel expected more information on the Bibas family soon.
The 33 designated for release during the cease-fire’s first 42-day phase are so-called “humanitarian hostages, including women, children, the elderly, and the sick. Israel is to release 1,904 Palestinian security prisoners, including more than a hundred serving life sentences for terror attacks.
