Portion of those killed: how many hostages is currently being held by Hamas

The war between Hamas terrorists and the Israel Defense Forces has lasted more than two months. During this time, the IDF has achieved many successes on the battlefield, but the most painful issue still remains the issue of the release of hostages.

The release of hostages is one of the most difficult and risky tasks. Israeli military observer David Sharp told Channel 24 about the difficulties and risks of exchanging prisoners.

What is the hostage situation

The final estimate is that 135 people are still being held captive by Palestinian militants. Probably some of them died, and some are considered missing.

Of these, 14 were women and 2 children who were supposed to be exchanged during the previous deal. Some of the hostages are military personnel. Among those remaining in the hands of terrorists there are also foreign citizens who have no political connection with Israel at all.

The most important thing is the hostages

There are a large number of different tunnels on the territory of the Gaza Strip. The IDF has already neutralized a significant portion. However, we are talking about hundreds of kilometers throughout the Gaza Strip, whose area is 365 square kilometers.

The other day, Israel began pumping sea water into the Hamas underground tunnel system in the Gaza Strip. Thus, the IDF seeks to destroy the militants' underground hiding places, but this may damage the soil.

When talking about pumping water into some tunnel, This does not mean that everything is flooded at once. This is flooded by one thousand or one hundredth. The military operates in places where it considers the risk of hostages to be zero or low. – Sharp noted.

According to him, the IDF is bombing the tunnels and also eliminating them on the ground. Of course, if the IDF has information about the presence of hostages in such places, it always limits itself in strikes.

Searching for information about hostages Israel is devoting enormous efforts, both technological and personnel. “Hundreds of people from different branches of intelligence are working on this issue,” added the military expert. However, unfortunately, the information received cannot always be turned into a practical attempt to free people, especially in enemy territory.

“Recently there was an attempt to return the bodies of the dead. It was possible to return two people: On October 7, a soldier and a girl were killed in captivity. During this operation, two IDF soldiers were killed,” Sharp said.

War between Hamas and Israel: latest news

• Ukraine managed to remove 315 people from the Gaza Strip. The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense said that among those rescued were two people with wounds, a cancer patient, a pregnant woman, as well as two citizens who coordinated Ukrainian military intelligence officers directly in the conflict zone.
• According to journalists, Hamas militant leader Yahya Sinwar fled from the north of Gaza to the south. He managed to do this by hiding in a humanitarian convoy.
• During a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, 25-year-old sergeant Gal Meir Eizenkot, the son of the former head of the IDF, was killed. As of December 8, Tel Aviv admitted that the total number of casualties as a result of hostilities was 89 fighters.