As talks over a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continue, the Israeli armed forces estimate that the number of people believed to be alive and detained since October 7th stands at 72. To this must be added the bodies of thirty-three people who are still believed to be held by Hamas, whether they were killed in captivity or during the attacks, and taken as bargaining chips.
The tally was updated after the Israeli military announced on August 20 that it had recovered the bodies of six victims the previous night, bringing the number of individuals, living and dead, whose return to its territory to 105 from 111.
It should be noted, however, that there is no “official” list of hostages accessible to the public. Unofficial counts are made by victims’ associations or editorial offices. On August 20, Agence France Presse put forward an estimate of 71 hostages presumed alive, including 12 women, and counted 34 bodies still being held in Gaza. According to the count of CheckNews, There are believed to be 70 hostages still alive in Gaza, including eleven women.
Among these 11 women – aged 18 to 39 when they were abducted – there are 5 female soldiers and 6 civilians, including Shiri Bibas, 32. In late November 2023, Hamas claimed that she was dead, alongside her two children aged 11 months and 4 and a half years. However, the information has never been confirmed by the Israeli authorities, and all three remain considered alive by the Hebrew state.
The question of the health of survivors raised
CheckNews and AFP agree on the number of adult men presumed alive: 57 individuals, aged 19 to 86. Their oldest is Shlomo Mansour, originally from Kibbutz Kissoufim. Seven foreign nationals, one Nepalese and six Thais (a figure confirmed at CheckNews by the Thai embassy in Tel Aviv) are among the hostages presumed to be alive.
The figure of “presumed alive” includes all those declared missing and whose death has not been confirmed by the Israeli authorities. It is possible, if not probable, that the number of surviving hostages is lower. For a majority of captives, no information on possible signs of life given to the families has been made public for months.
Asked by CNN In June, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said it was impossible to know how many hostages were still alive, as they were being held by various factions scattered across the country. The question of the health of the surviving hostages, after many months of captivity, has also been raised by Israeli authorities.
“Exchange currency”
So far, 76 hostages or initially presumed hostages have been officially declared dead by the Israeli authorities. Among them are a dozen people killed in the attacks of October 7 whose bodies were subsequently identified at the site of the massacres. According to the AFP count, among the 64 other victims identified, 35 people were murdered on the day of the attacks (25 civilians and 10 soldiers), their bodies taken to Gaza in order to constitute a “bargaining chip” with Israel. The other 29 hostages counted by the news agency died in Gaza, some during the clashes. Three male captives were mistakenly shot dead by the Israeli army on December 15, 2023. Regarding the six hostages whose bodies were recovered on Monday, August 19, the IDF said it carried out operations in March near the tunnel in which the bodies were found, adding that it was possible that airstrikes caused the deaths of some of the hostages.
