About half of the approximately 100 hostages held in the Gaza Strip since last year are still alive, Israeli media quoted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying.
Netanyahu spoke about this during a meeting of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Security Committee in Jerusalem, according to media reports on Sunday. There was no official confirmation of this, as it was a closed session.
Terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups killed more than 1,200 people in Israel on October 7 and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, sparking the ongoing war.
During a ceasefire in late November, Hamas released 105 hostages. In return, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners. Indirect negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of more hostages have so far been unsuccessful.
Individual hostages have since been freed by the Israeli army, while a number have also been found dead. Experts and observers have long believed that many of the hostages still in the Gaza Strip are no longer alive.
Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian medical officials said at least seven people were killed and others wounded in an Israeli attack on a former school building in the northern Gaza Strip. The general director of the Hamas-controlled housing ministry was among the dead, medical sources said.
The Israeli military says it carried out a precision strike against terrorists, using the former school to carry out attacks.
“This is another example of the systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure by the Hamas terrorist organization, in violation of international law,” the IDF wrote on its Telegram channel. It said Israeli forces had taken a number of measures to reduce the danger to civilians, but “will continue to act against terrorist organizations that use schools and civilian institutions as shelters.”
The information from both sides could not be independently verified.
