Bracing for the Worst: Some Hostages’ Families Say IDF Told Them Loved Ones May Be Dead
After Hamas conveys ‘list’ saying 8 of 26 hostages set to be released in coming weeks are dead, relatives say the military gave them grim assessment of their loved ones’ fate
By: Times of Israel Staff – timesofisrael.com
Family members of several hostages who are set to be released from Gaza in the coming weeks expressed dread over their loved ones’ fates on Tuesday after Hamas conveyed information saying that eight of those 33 hostages are dead.
Following the release of the information those families were informed by the military that Hamas’s information aligned with previous military assessments and there were dire concerns about their fates.
Hamas provided a list — reportedly only numbers, without names — reporting how many of the hostages from among the 33 to be released in the first phase of the ongoing ceasefire are alive. Hamas was required to provide information about the hostages’ status as part of its obligations under the deal with Israel signed earlier this month.
The hostages’ family members confirmed that Gal Hirsh, the government point man on hostages, had reached out to them in recent days and said that while the terror group’s information was incomplete, it lined up with the assessment of Israel’s intelligence services.
“It’s not exactly data. It’s Hamas saying [the number of] ‘alive,’ ‘released,’ and ‘dead,’” specified Yizhar Lifshitz, whose father Oded Lifshitz, 84, is on the list of the initial 33 to be released.
cont’d…