Israel will continue its operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah until Hamas forces in the area are destroyed or the Islamic movement hands over any of the Israeli hostages still in its hands. This was announced by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. “This operation will continue until we eliminate Hamas in the Rafah region and throughout the Strip, or until the first hostage is returned,” he said in the note, presumably meaning until an agreement is reached with Hamas. “We are ready to compromise in order to free the hostages, but if this option is not available, we will intensify the operation.”
Relatives of the Israeli hostages block the highway
Activists for the release of Israeli hostages blocked the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv for half an hour today during the morning rush hour. Among them also some relatives of the hostages. They stopped northbound traffic at the Rokach interchange – shortly before CIA chief Bill Burns arrived in Israel – demanding a deal with Hamas for the release.
How many are still alive?
How many hostages, seized during the devastating terrorist attack of 7 October 2023, are still alive? It is a question to which it is impossible to give certain answers. But a month ago American officials told the Wall Street Journal to fear that a good part of the Israeli hostages still held captive by Hamas in Gaza are dead, and for some time now. A few weeks ago, according to rumors reported by the international press, Hamas would not have been able to trace with certainty even those first 40 live hostages that Israel was asking for as an essential requirement for an agreement.
Given and considering the carpet bombings that lasted months, it is realistic that the number of hostages who have now died is very high. Some perhaps died almost immediately, in the days after the terrifying terrorist attack of October 7, from injuries sustained during the kidnapping. A few weeks ago the Israeli armed forces confirmed the death of 34 hostages. The situation would, however, be much worse.
“132 hostages in Gaza”
The Hostages Families Forum officially announced in the last few hours that Lior Rudaeff, 61, of Kibbutz Nir Yitzchak, was murdered on October 7 and his body is located in the Gaza Strip. Rudaeff is the 38th hostage confirmed dead of the 132 hostages still held in Gaza, Israeli media reported.
Rudaeff leaves behind his wife Yaffa, to whom he was married for 38 years, four children and three grandchildren. He was born in Argentina and moved to Israel with his family at the age of seven. He was a member of the emergency security team that fought the dozens of Hamas militants who infiltrated the Kibbutz on October 7. His wife Yaffa remained in their bomb shelter for more than 14 hours and survived, and their son Ben managed to escape the carnage that occurred at the Supernova festival.
But the number 132 should be taken with a pinch of salt. On October 7, 2023, as part of the Hamas-led attack on Israel at the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups kidnapped 252 people. As of February 14, 2024, 112 hostages had been returned alive to Israel, including 105 released through a prisoner exchange agreement, four released by Hamas unilaterally, and three rescued by the Tel Aviv army. In recent months, Israel had hypothesized that 50 hostages would die immediately, on October 7, or during captivity. According to Israeli intelligence, at least 20 other hostages may have died. In May 2024, there would be 94 hostages believed to be alive and 38 bodies in Hamas hands, according to the Hostage Families Forum.
“The Israeli government has a profound moral duty to pursue every avenue in the ongoing negotiations to bring Lior home. He deserves a dignified burial in his homeland, along with the other 38 brutally murdered hostages. The government must also ensure the prompt return of all living hostages, so that they can begin the long road to healing and recovery,” a spokesperson for the Hostage Families Forum said in a statement Tuesday.
Judy Weinstein
Furthermore, yesterday’s news came that the Israeli-American-Canadian citizen Judy Weinstein, 70, and another hostage whose details were not disclosed, held by Hamas in Gaza, died from injuries sustained due to the bombings. Israelis. This was announced on Telegram by a spokesperson for the Palestinian Islamic fundamentalist movement, Abu Obaida. Kibbutz Nir Oz had already confirmed Judy Weinstein’s death months ago.
In a subsequent video posted on Telegram, the Hamas spokesperson said in the caption: “The destruction of hospitals by your army and putting them out of service is what has caused the suffering and death of your detainees, just as it suffers our people,” written in English, Arabic and Hebrew. In the video, the text again appears in all three languages: “Judith Weinstein was seriously injured on October 7 and underwent intensive treatment in a hospital in the Gaza Strip. Soon after her recovery, she was brought back to his place of detention”. The video continues to show a series of footage of buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes.
The hostage remained nameless
A second text also appears in the video which talks about the unnamed hostage and says: “A month ago she was seriously injured in an attack by the Zionist air force together with another detainee, but she died due to the lack of intensive care in the Gaza Strip because the Zionist army destroyed the hospitals.” The video then switches to images of the al Shifa hospital after the operation by Israeli troops, showing the destruction of the building.
