The army of Israel reported on Thursday that most of the more than 200 hostages who were captured during the attack by the Islamist group Hamas in Israel and taken to Gaza are alive.
A military spokesman on Friday offered updated data on the Army’s estimates of the situation of at least 203 hostages and specified that, while “there are bodies brought” to Gaza, “the majority of hostages are alive. ”
The data released also details that more than 20 of the people kidnapped in the strip were under 18 years old, and there were also between 10 and 20 people over 60 years old.
“As of today (Friday), there are between 100 and 200 Israelis who are considered missing persons. In comparison, on the first day of the war, 3,000 people were considered missing. This number has decreased significantly as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed their location,” added a military statement, emphasizing “the great complexity involved in finding information about missing persons”.
The Army pointed out that among the people considered missing were several whose bodies were transferred to a military base that was in charge of identifying the bodies.
To this, he also added an indeterminate number of bodies that have not yet been recovered. “At this time, the IDF is still conducting search and recovery operations” on the Gaza side of the dividing fence.
The attack by the Palestinian Islamist group, which left 1,400 people dead in Israel, triggered a war that is now in its 14th day and has left more than 4,100 dead in the Gaza Strip.
