JERUSALEM (Reuters) – More than a third of the hostages still held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip have died, according to an Israeli government tally released on Tuesday.
Of the approximately 250 people kidnapped in the Palestinian enclave during the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7, several dozen were released under a truce concluded in November, while others were been recovered – dead or alive – by Israeli troops.
According to Israel, 120 people are still being held hostage, 43 of whom have been declared dead by Israeli authorities based on various sources of information, including intelligence, surveillance videos or forensic analysis.
Israeli officials have said privately that the death toll could be higher.
Hamas, which threatened at the start of the war to execute the hostages in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes, claims that these strikes caused the hostages’ deaths.
Israel, which did not exclude this hypothesis in certain cases, declared that some of the bodies of hostages found showed signs of execution.
On Monday, the Israeli army announced the death of four hostages still in the hands of Hamas.
The release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas have been made by Israel the absolute priorities of its offensive in the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden released a proposal he presented as a comprehensive offer from Israel to end the war, a plan that includes the release of some hostages as part of a ceasefire. -preliminary fire.
Mediation efforts aimed at reaching this agreement have stalled, however, as Israel maintains its desire to resume its campaign to destroy Hamas. The Palestinian Islamist movement, for its part, demands an end to the war and the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
(Written by Dan Williams, Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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