JERUSALEM — Israel says a Hamas list shows that eight of the 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire are dead.
Government spokesman David Mencer told journalists Monday that Hamas said the other 25 are alive. Israel overnight said it had received a list of information on the status of the hostages from Hamas.
Israel has said the next release of hostages will take place on Thursday, followed by another on Saturday.
Whether hostages are alive or dead inside Gaza has been a heartbreaking question for waiting families who have pushed Israel’s government to reach a deal to free them, fearing that time was running out.
Approximately 90 hostages are still in captivity. Prior to this announcement, Israel believed at least 35 of them were dead.
An Israeli strike in the West Bank kills 2
Israel has carried out a strike on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank, killing two people and wounding another three.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported the casualties from Monday’s strike in the built-up Nur Shams refugee camp. It has been the scene of several Israeli military raids in recent months targeting Palestinian militants.
Hamas said the two killed were fighters in its armed wing.
Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire in the urban Qalandiya refugee camp near Jerusalem overnight, according to the Health Ministry. The ministry does not say whether those killed by Israeli fire are militants or civilians.
The Israeli military confirmed the strike in Nur Shams but did not immediately provide further details. It referred questions about the shooting in Qalandiya to the Israeli police, who did not immediately respond.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza along with east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
An Israeli ex-general says the war did not end well for his country
A former Israeli general who had proposed a surrender-or-starve strategy for northern Gaza says “the war has ended very badly” for Israel.
Giora Eiland spoke to Israeli Army Radio on Monday as tens of thousands of Palestinians returned to the heavily destroyed north in accordance with a ceasefire reached with Hamas.
Eiland said that by opening the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli military zone bisecting the territory, Israel had lost leverage over Hamas and would not be able to restore it, even if it resumes the war. “We are at the mercy of Hamas,” he said.
Eiland was the main author of the so-called Generals’ Plan, which called for giving civilians in the northern third of Gaza a week to evacuate. The whole area would then be declared a closed military zone, sealed off from humanitarian aid, and anyone remaining would be considered a combatant.
Last fall, the plan was presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has not said whether it adopted parts of it. The Israeli military has denied carrying out the plan.
Around the time it was publicized, in October, Israel launched a major operation in northern Gaza and sealed it off, allowing in hardly any aid. Tens of thousands of people were forced out, and the operation caused heavy destruction.
Eiland said Israel had failed to achieve its stated goals, including destroying Hamas, removing it from power, restoring a sense of safety to Israeli border communities or safely returning dozens of hostages abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war.
He said that Hamas, by contrast, “has largely achieved everything it wanted.”
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