For more than a month there has been concern about the fate of the hostages held in the Gaza Strip who were captured by Hamas on October 7. Their families called for “the immediate release of all hostages” and marched from Tel Aviv on Tuesday, November 14th, in a march that would take them to the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, November 18th. in Jerusalem. The grief of the hostages’ relatives is compounded by the persistence of numerous unknowns and by the unverifiable communications from Hamas, which regularly announces the deaths of prisoners in the bombings.
More than a month after October 7, the exact number of people detained in the Gaza Strip is unknown. Shortly after the attack, the number of 130 hostages was given: about thirty in the hands of the Islamic Jihad armed group and about a hundred held captive by Hamas. During a visit to Moscow in late October, an official from the Islamist group said that other factions also took civilians hostage on October 7.
No information from the Israeli authorities
On October 16, the Israeli army revised the estimated number of hostages upward, saying 199 people were captured during the attack. On the same day, Hamas claimed that the initial number of hostages was “between 200 and 250,” including about 200 in its hands. At the beginning of November, the Israeli army spoke of “more than 240 people” who had been kidnapped. On November 2, it said it had informed the families of 242 hostages of their relatives’ captivity. This Thursday, November 16th, an Israeli army spokesman spoke on France Inter of 239 hostages.
Israeli authorities did not provide any information about the profile of those arrested. On the other hand, certain media outlets such as the Haaretz daily attempted to compile the list of those suspected of being detained. This incomplete census is not an official list. As of November 16, there were 201 people (five of whom were released). The rest is distributed as follows: more than thirty minors, including several babies, more than sixty women and a hundred men. One of the women, who was pregnant at the time of her abduction, reportedly gave birth to her baby in captivity. according to a letter Address by Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli Prime Minister, to American First Lady Jill Biden.
Of the 201 people named in the Haaretz list, 191 are civilians and only ten are military personnel. According to information from the Israeli daily newspaper, almost 70 hostages came from Kibbutz Nir Oz. About thirty hostages came from Beeri. Just under forty were reportedly kidnapped from the scene of the attacked techno festival. About twenty were reportedly captured at Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Four reportedly came from the Bedouin village of Hura and were taken hostage at Kibbutz Holit, where they worked.
The uncertain list of suspected hostages has evolved as information has been gradually gathered. Lilach Kipnis, 60, and her husband Eviatar, 65, a couple from Beeri, had been untraceable since October 7 and were considered suspected hostages until their remains were finally identified at the morgue on October 17 and 23. Conversely, Israeli authorities claimed in early November that Emily Hand, an 8-year-old girl from Beeri who was presumed dead after the October 7 attack, could still be alive and among those detained. Gaza.
Only five publications
So far only five hostages have been released. In a statement released on October 20, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the release of the two American hostages whose release Hamas had announced earlier in the day, citing “humanitarian reasons.” They are Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, 17. On October 23, two Israeli women were released again for “humanitarian and health reasons”: Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85.
According to the Israeli army, a fifth person, 18-year-old soldier Ori Megidish, was rescued during a ground attack in the Gaza Strip on October 30. When Israeli authorities claim that she was “abducted by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7,” Hamas disputes this information, claiming that she was instead captured by civilians or an autonomous group in Gaza.
Hamas announces that more than sixty hostages have been killed by Israeli attacks
Much of the uncertainty concerns the deaths of some of those detained. Hamas has regularly reported on the deaths of hostages, each time reported as a result of Israeli bombings in Gaza. In total, more than 60 hostages were killed, according to the Islamist group.
On October 9, two days after the first Israeli strikes, the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, claimed they had “caused the deaths of four prisoners.”
On October 13, the same brigades claimed that “thirteen prisoners, including foreigners,” had been killed at five different locations in the Gaza Strip that were attacked by Israeli warplanes.
On October 14, the same source announced the deaths of nine hostages, including four foreigners, killed in an “attack on the compound where the prisoners were being held.”
On October 26, Hamas’s military wing announced that the total number of “Zionist hostages” killed “due to the Zionist bombings and massacres” was “nearly fifty.”
On October 31, Hamas reported that seven hostages, including “three foreign passport holders,” were killed in an Israeli bombing raid on the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.
On November 4, the movement’s armed wing claimed that a total of 60 Israeli hostages had been killed in IDF bombings since October 7.
On November 9, the al-Qassam Brigades announced that two Israeli soldiers being held hostage had been killed or injured in an Israeli airstrike.
The death of a soldier was confirmed by the Israeli army on Tuesday, November 14, a day after Hamas released a photo showing this 19-year-old soldier named Noa Marciano as “killed by an Israeli bombing.” The death of another hostage was confirmed at the end of October. It was Shani Louk. This 23-year-old German-Israeli young woman was kidnapped by Hamas while attending the music festival that was the target of the Islamist movement’s attack and was believed to be in captivity. On October 30, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced his death.
Furthermore, it is impossible to confirm the death of the hostages or their identity. “To date, no one has met the hostages,” not even the Red Cross, said Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Tuesday, November 14, during his trip to Geneva. And to reiterate: “We have no proof of life.”
Rare proof of life
Proof of life – at least publicly – was limited to a few rare videos. Hamas released the first hostage images in mid-October, showing a young woman who spoke Hebrew and was later identified as Mia Shem, a French-Israeli citizen who was kidnapped while attending the Tribe of Nova music festival.
On October 30, a video released by the al-Qassam Brigades showed three women detained in the Gaza Strip, whose names were later revealed by the Israeli government: Yelena Trupanob, Danielle Aloni and Rimon Kirsht. In this sequence, likely under duress from their captors, they demanded an agreement that would guarantee their release in exchange for the release of the Palestinian prisoners. This has been the demand of Hamas leaders for a month, who reiterate that they are ready to carry out a prisoner exchange.
For its part, Islamic Jihad released a video on November 9 of two hostages, a woman in her 70s and a teenager, that it was allegedly holding in Gaza, saying it was ready to release them “on humanitarian grounds if the security situation worsens.” . The conditions on site are brought together. The two hostages were identified as Hanna Katzir, 77, and Yagil Yaakov, 13, both from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
After the broadcast of these images, the NGO Human Rights Watch released a statement denouncing the use of hostages: “The practice of Hamas and Islamic Jihad of publicly broadcasting videos of Israeli hostages constitutes a form of inhumane treatment that amounts to a war crime equals.”
The NGO recalls that the hostage-taking constitutes a serious violation of international law and calls on Hamas and Islamic Jihad to “immediately and unconditionally release all civilians in their custody and to allow those still detained to communicate with their families through private means.” “.
Hostages at the center of the negotiations
For a month, Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out a “general ceasefire in Gaza without the release” of the hostages, as he did on November 6th, when he simultaneously cleared the way for “small tactical pauses.”
On Monday, November 13, a Hamas spokesman spoke of an agreement that would see the release of 50 hostages in exchange for 200 children and 75 women held in Israeli prisons. The talks surrounding this agreement, which were conducted with the support of Qatar, have so far been unsuccessful. According to Hamas, Israel systematically changed its conditions at the last minute and ultimately demanded the release of a hundred people.
Dozens of hostages are believed to be foreign nationals (including a significant number of Thai workers) or dual nationals. During a visit to Moscow in late October, Hamas officials told the Russian press that they considered all their binational hostages to be Israelis and would not release any of them until Israel agreed to a ceasefire. According to one of the Hamas officials interviewed, Russia, France, the United States, Spain and many other countries have called for the release of their imprisoned citizens.
On Wednesday, November 15, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling, in particular, for the immediate release of the hostages. A resolution that, according to an Israeli representative at the United Nations, should have had “no influence on the terrorists.”