After an assessment following intelligence gathered in Gaza and operations to retrieve bodies of captives, the IDF concluded that it was possible some of the hostages may never be found.
They concluded that as the Gaza operation continues, the amount of intelligence about the hostages increases, but the chance of hostages returning alive decreases.
A recent IDF operation has included the retrieval of five bodies of hostages killed in Gaza.
Their bodies were buried inside a tunnel and were located by the IDF operating in Khan Younis.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said,“We were near these bodies before, we didn’t know how to reach out [and recover them]. Now that we knew how to reach out, we did so. We brought five [slain hostages], which otherwise, it’s not certain we would have ever found them.”
Currently, there are still 111 hostages remaining in Gaza out of an original number of 250 and bodies of 39.
