Bracing for the worst: Some hostages’ families say IDF told them loved ones may be dead
After Hamas conveys ‘list’ saying 8 of 26 hostages set to be released in coming weeks are dead, relatives say the military gave them grim assessment of their loved ones’ fate

Family members of several hostages who are set to be released from Gaza in the coming weeks expressed dread over their loved ones’ fates on Tuesday after Hamas conveyed information saying that eight of those 33 hostages are dead.
Following the release of the information those families were informed by the military that Hamas’s information aligned with previous military assessments and there were dire concerns about their fates.
Hamas provided a list — reportedly only numbers, without names — reporting how many of the hostages from among the 33 to be released in the first phase of the ongoing ceasefire are alive. Hamas was required to provide information about the hostages’ status as part of its obligations under the deal with Israel signed earlier this month.
The hostages’ family members confirmed that Gal Hirsh, the government point man on hostages, had reached out to them in recent days and said that while the terror group’s information was incomplete, it lined up with the assessment of Israel’s intelligence services.
“It’s not exactly data. It’s Hamas saying [the number of] ‘alive,’ ‘released,’ and ‘dead,'” specified Yizhar Lifshitz, whose father Oded Lifshitz, 84, is on the list of the initial 33 to be released.
“There’s a grave concern for his life after this last indication,” the hostage’s son said, speaking to the Ynet news outlet. “The last sign of life for him was on Day 25.”
On that day, Lifshitz said, “he was alive, with someone from the kibbutz, [being held] in the same apartment, but he didn’t feel well. They took him, and he’s basically disappeared since then, from us and probably from Hamas too. It doesn’t bode well.”

Hamas terrorists kidnapped Oded Lifshitz, along with his wife Yocheved Lifshitz, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, during the terror group’s October 7, 2023 cross-border onslaught, which started the war. His wife was released after 20 days in captivity.
Danny Elgarat, whose brother Itzik Elgarat is also among those slated for release, angrily told a Knesset committee on Tuesday, “my brother was left to die,” citing Hamas’s document.
“We know more today about the list that Hamas sent. I won’t speak for others, but we’ll probably receive him as one of the slain,” Elgarat said.

“It was possible to save him, if you’d accepted the earlier deal,” Danny continued, and lamented the government’s insistence on applying military pressure to Hamas rather than agreeing to a ceasefire deal earlier.
“Who will be held accountable for this decision that killed 40 hostages?” he asked.
IDF Spokesman Daniel Hagari said Sunday that there were also “grave concerns” for the fate of Shiri Bibas and her two small children, Ariel, 5, and baby Kfir, 2.
Husband and father Yarden Bibas is also held hostage and is on the list of those to be freed in the first phase of the deal. The Bibas family were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 invasion.
A support group for the family on Tuesday asked the public to display the color orange on Wednesday, marking the bright red hair of the two boys. Instructions were to wear orange clothes or accessories, tie orange ribbons or balloons to the car, balcony, or office, and use the color orange in any way.
“The people of Israel haven’t forgotten the Bibas family!” stated a flyer making the rounds on social media. “Join us and together we will color the country in orange.”

Relatives stated Monday that they are still holding onto hope that the Bibas family will return from captivity in Gaza, although Shiri and the boys should have been among the first seven civilian hostages released in the last ten days, and despite “grave concerns” for their lives.
“We said then, and we say now: We hold on to hope and continue waiting for their return. We await clarity regarding their condition,” said the wider family in the statement.
The deal agreed to earlier this month, which went into effect on January 19, is based on a proposal that the US presented in May 2024. Far-right politicians who oppose the current deal have claimed responsibility for that agreement not going through in May, although the government and the US have blamed Hamas.

Separately, in an interview with Ynet on Tuesday, Elgarat called for living hostages to be prioritized over the return of bodies, after noting that his brother, set to be released in the coming weeks, is likely dead.
“We should bring home the living first, and after that, in the end, we’ll return the fallen. If someone isn’t alive, does it matter what [phase of the deal] he’s [released] in? He’s not alive anymore,” he said.
So far, seven hostages have been freed as part of the current deal, which mandates the release of 33 so-called “humanitarian hostages” during its first 42-day phase, with fighting stopped in the Strip.
As those hostages — women, children, elderly people, and sick people — are gradually released, Israel is to release some 1,904 Palestinian security prisoners, including more than a hundred serving life sentences for terror attacks
The three-phase deal’s later phases are to see negotiations with the stated goal of reaching a “sustainable calm” in the enclave, alongside the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza, the release of more Palestinian security prisoners, and an Israeli withdrawal from the Strip.
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and taking 251 hostages, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
At least 34 of the 87 hostages still in captivity have been confirmed dead by the IDF, and the bodies of 40 others have been recovered throughout the course of the war.