People walk past images of hostages kidnapped in the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas from Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, April 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hannah McKay

JNS.org – Fifty-one out of the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are alive, according to the latest Israeli intelligence assessments.

Given the intense military pressure on Gaza and the harsh conditions the hostages have endured for over a year, officials fear the actual number of survivors might be even lower.

During a closed-door session with the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that roughly half the hostages were believed to be alive.

The assessment draws from extensive intelligence gathered since Oct. 7, 2023, combining public sources with classified operational data.

Sources familiar with the situation told Israel Hayom that officials have kept families fully informed, sharing detailed assessments about their loved ones’ status. While some families have accepted the government’s conclusions about presumed deaths, others are holding out for definitive proof.

Tracking the hostages’ status serves multiple critical purposes beyond negotiations. This intelligence helps commanders plan operations to prevent unintended casualties—whether from Israel Defense Forces strikes or deliberate harm by Hamas, which has ordered terrorists to kill captives at the first sign of any rescue attempt.

The execution of six hostages in a Khan Yunis tunnel in August—Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, and Almog Sarusi—proved these weren’t empty threats.

Intelligence suggests that Hamas has killed 27 Israeli captives in custody, while at least seven others have died as a result of IDF operations in Gaza.

Israel maintains its commitment to bringing home all hostages, dead or alive. While recent negotiation frameworks prioritized the return of living hostages, the dwindling number of survivors and ongoing threats to their lives have prompted security officials to push harder for an immediate deal.

CIA Director Bill Burns has proposed a 28-day ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for Hamas releasing eight hostages and Israel freeing dozens of Palestinian prisoners, Axios reported, citing three Israeli officials.

The head of the US intelligence agency advanced the plan during discussions last Sunday in Doha with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Mossad director David Barnea.

Burns’s proposal does not address Hamas’s key demands of a full Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the war. Axios noted that an agreement was unlikely before the US presidential election on Nov. 5.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the return of the 101 hostages has become the IDF’s “most important mission” in Gaza.

Speaking during a visit to the site where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces three weeks ago, Gallant said that the IDF will continue to put “as much pressure on Hamas as possible in order to create the conditions necessary to ensure the return of the hostages.”

The government, he continued, “must do what is necessary to bring about a deal. You must apply military pressure and do what is necessary to create the conditions required for us to carry out an agreement. This is our most important mission in Gaza at this time.”