by Pietro Baragiola
Thursday 20 Junethe American newspaper Wall Street Journal published an interview in which several mediators of the ceasefire negotiations affirm without a shadow of a doubt that “the number of hostages that Hamas holds in the Gaza tunnels is much lower than that calculated so far”.
According to an estimate based on information provided by Israeli and US intelligence, 66 of the 116 Israelis captured on October 7 diedthus bringing the number of hostages still alive to 50. This estimate is much lower than the 75 survivors initially confirmed by theIDF based on their recent operations in Gaza.
According to data from the Wall Street Journal, most of the Israeli victims died during the events of October 7, but some of them were killed during clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hamas terrorists.
At the moment, representatives of Washington and Jerusalem have refused to comment on the data presented in the article and even Hamas spokesmen have admitted that they do not know how many hostages are still alive.
“We are really worried,” he said Hagai Levine, head of the medical team of the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons. “Every week more hostages are dying or in serious danger and we must act quickly to bring the survivors home.”
The release of the hostages
Over 250 hostages were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 attack. After the release of 105 prisoners during the November truce, the IDF implemented several secret rescue operations aimed at freeing the remaining civilians.
The most successful operation recently took place Saturday 8 June and led to the rescue of Noa Argamani, Shlomi Ziv, Almog Meir Jan and Andrey Kozlov who were able to return home to their families.
“Despite this significant achievement, we must honestly admit that we will not be able to bring everyone home in this way,” he said Daniel Hagarispokesperson for the IDF, during a public speech to talk about the success of the operation.
Hagari also wanted to focus on another IDF mission that took place the night between Friday 17th and Saturday 18th May. During this night operation the IDF, in collaboration with the Shin Bet intelligence agency, found the bodies of four hostages held in the Gaza tunnels for more than 7 months after their killing. Their names were Shani Louk, Amit Buskila, Itzhak Gelerenter and Ron Benjamin.
This discovery has cast doubt on the survival of the hostages previously believed to be alive, increasing the anguish of their loved ones.
“As parents there is an underlying contract with our children that we will take care of them, keeping them safe from harm,” he told the Wall Street Journal. Yoni Levy, father of Naama Levy, the Israeli girl who will turn 20 on Saturday while a prisoner of Hamas. “This same protection should be guaranteed by the state to its citizens, but this does not always happen.”
On Thursday 20 June numerous demonstrators organized protest centers throughout Israel asking that an agreement be reached as soon as possible for the release of the hostages. During the block of the Ayalon highway the leader of the protest, Einav Tsengauker, mother of hostage Matan Tsngaukerdeclared that “the government’s failure to keep the children of Israel safe will go down in the history books.”
“Nowadays people prefer to watch reality shows and European championships and not worry about the hostages,” he said Ifat Kalderon, cousin of the hostage Ofer Kalderon. “We must bring them all home, even those who are no longer here.”
The hostages killed
According to the Wall Street Journal article, the main theme of the new negotiations between Israel and Hamas is establishing the number of hostages still alive.
Since the beginning of the conflict they are well 19 hostages were killed whose bodies were returned to Israel during his numerous rescue operations.
Israel currently uses a dense network of forensic rules to establish remotely whether the hostages seen in the videos shot by Hamas are already dead. The IDF even set up a small committee of medical experts to review some classified surveillance videos to determine the health status of Israelis held in captivity.
“Thanks to these techniques we are able to ascertain the death of people who we thought were still alive and we are able to establish how they were killed by terrorists” he explained during his interview with the Israeli newspaper Ynet on Professor Ofer Merin, board member and general director of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. “We sit very calmly, look at every frame, listen to what happened and evaluate all this information.”
When asked about the issue, the leaders of the Forum of the families of the hostages and the missing declared that “the State of Israel has the moral obligation to bring all the hostages home who were taken from their loved ones on October 7th. This sacred duty cannot make a distinction between the return of hostages alive to allow them to embrace their families and the return of killed civilians to grant them a dignified burial in their homeland. The State of Israel is obliged to bring all of them home.”
