US President Donald Trump said that fewer than 20 hostages held in Gaza remain alive, a remark that has drawn anguish from families of the captives and was promptly denied by Israel’s hostage negotiator. “So now they have 20,” Trump said while speaking to reporters at the Oval Office on Friday. “But the 20 is actually probably not 20 because a couple of them are not around any longer.”“And you have to understand, I’m the one who got all of the hostages out,” Trump said, claiming credit for the release of “hundreds” of captives, even though fewer than 150 remained in Gaza when he assumed office on January 20, reported the Times of Israel.Following his remarks, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum released a statement that read, “Mr. President, there are 50 hostages. For us, each and every one of them is a world in itself.”Trump also claimed credit for securing releases during the January-March ceasefire, denounced Hamas’s “extortion” and outlined ongoing efforts to recover the rest of the hostages.“The situation has to end, it’s extortion and it has to end,” Trump said, referring to Hamas’s hostage-taking and negotiations. He added that he believes it would be “safer, in many ways,” to free the captives through a military operation rather than a deal with Hamas. “We’re doing everything we can to get the hostages out, it’s not easy,” he added.
Israel’s ministry refutes claims
Israel’s coordinator for hostage affairs, Gal Hirsch, said in a statement following Trump’s remarks that, “according to the information we have, there is no change in the number of living hostages,”. “Twenty of the hostages are alive, two [others] are in grave danger for their lives, 28 are no longer alive and have been declared deceased,” he wrote to the families.Trump was also questioned about why the United States seems to support Israel’s move to seize control of Gaza City, despite opposition from the families of the hostages who fear the move could endanger their loved ones. “Not all of them,” Trump replied, seemingly pointing to a minority of hostage relatives who support Israel’s expanded operation in Gaza.Israeli officials maintain that 50 hostages are being held in Gaza, 49 of the 251 abducted during the Hamas-led assault on October 7, 2023, along with one captive taken earlier. 28 among them have been confirmed dead by the IDF, and authorities believe 20 hostages are still alive. The condition of two others remain in serious doubt. Hamas is also reportedly holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014, as per the Times of Israel. Earlier this week, Israel advanced further into Gaza, pressing ahead with its plan to seize the territory while simultaneously approving thousands of new housing units in the occupied West Bank, steps that drew international concern and renewed debate over the prospects of a Palestinian state.Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the IDF’s chief spokesperson, announced that Israel “has begun the next phase of the war,” noting that troops had reached the outskirts of Gaza City and were preparing to relocate displaced residents to southern Gaza, reported The New York Times.More than 62,000 people have been killed in the besieged Gaza Strip since the start of the conflict, as per Gaza’s health ministry.
