About 50 of the 97 hostages still held by Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip as of October 7, 2023 are still alive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is quoted as saying, according to Israeli media reports.
According to media reports, Netanyahu made this assessment during a meeting with the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. There has been no official confirmation of this information, as the meeting took place behind closed doors.
Of the 251 people kidnapped during the unprecedented attack by the military wing of Hamas and other Palestinian movements in southern Israel, 97 remain in the hands of Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, but 33 have been declared dead by the Israeli military.
Negotiations are fruitless
During a week-long ceasefire agreed and implemented in late November, Palestinian armed movements released 105 hostages in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held in Israeli detention centers. Since then, indirect negotiations for a new ceasefire and the release of hostages in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners have proved fruitless.
Fewer than ten hostages were freed in Israeli military operations, while several others were recovered dead.
Losses on both sides
The October attack killed 1,205 people on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli data, which includes hostages killed during their detention.
Since then, widespread Israeli retaliatory military operations have killed at least 41,431 Palestinians in the small, besieged coastal enclave, according to the Hamas Health Ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
