More than a third of the 250 hostages kidnapped in a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 may already be dead, the Israeli government said Tuesday. The Israeli military said Monday that four more hostages had been killed, including three men seen on video begging Hamas to be released.
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The Israeli government said on Tuesday it believed more than a third of the hostages remaining in Gaza were dead, as the United States seeks to move ahead with their rescue under a proposal to end the war with Hamas.
Of the roughly 250 people dragged into the Gaza Strip by Hamas-led Palestinian militants in the Oct. 7 cross-border violence that sparked the war, dozens were released during a November ceasefire and others were rescued, alive or dead, by Israeli forces.
According to a government tally, 120 people remain in custody, 43 of whom have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities based on a variety of sources, including intelligence tip-offs, surveillance camera and bystander video and forensic analysis.
Some officials have said privately that the death toll may be even higher.
Hamas, which had threatened to execute hostages in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes early in the war, has since claimed that such attacks caused the hostages' deaths. Israel has not denied this possibility in all cases, but has said that some of the bodies of hostages recovered showed signs of execution.
Four more hostages were added to Israel's death list on Monday.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a proposal to end the war that would include Israel releasing some of the hostages during an interim ceasefire.
But mediation efforts to conclude the agreement have stalled as Israel insists on eventually resuming operations to destroy Hamas, while Palestinian Islamist groups demand a definite end to the war and the withdrawal of all invading forces.
(Reuters)
