The Israeli mediator in charge of hostages, Gal Hirsch, said on Wednesday that the number of living people still retained in captivity in Gaza after being removed during the attack on Hamas on October 7, 2023 remained unchanged, denying Donald Trump statements.
“Currently, 59 hostages are retained by the terrorist organization Hamas. Twenty-four of them appear on the list of living hostages. Thirty-five of them appear on the list of hostages whose death has been officially confirmed, “he wrote on the social network X.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump reported three additional dead among the hostages still retained in Gaza and indicated that only 21 were still alive.
“We want to try to save as many hostages as possible,” he continued: “It is a terrible situation”.
These remarks deviated from the results drawn up by the Israeli army according to which, out of the 251 people kidnapped on October 7, 58 are still retained in Gaza, 34 of them being dead.
-Hamas also retains the body of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous war in Gaza in 2014.
Expected from May 13 to 16 in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Donald Trump required the return of hostages several times.
The attack on Hamas of October 7, 2023 led to the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Israeli military reprisals have killed at least 52,615 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Government of Hamas, deemed reliable by the UN.
AFP
