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Sunday, September 22, 2024
Report: Netanyahu told MKs half of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are alive

Israelis protest for the hostages, in what is considered the largest-ever protest in Israel on Tel Aviv's Begin Road, September 7, 2024. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
In a closed meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told lawmakers that only half of the 97 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7 are alive.
“According to the information we have, half of the hostages in Gaza are alive,” he is quoted as saying by Army Radio.
According to earlier leaks from the same meeting, Netanyahu also denied standing in the way of a hostage deal, blaming Hamas for demanding numerous revisions to the proposed ceasefire outline.