A group representing the families of hostages in Gaza — including six captives whose bodies the Israeli military recently retrieved from a tunnel there — say that harrowing details about the conditions of their captivity indicate that those still held by Hamas are in “grave danger.”
The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of many of the captives, said in a statement on Monday that families of the six dead hostages had been briefed on an Israeli military investigation that described some of the conditions their loved ones endured. The information, the group said, exposed “an utterly horrific reality.”
The six hostages — whom Israeli officials have said Hamas fatally shot at close range shortly before soldiers found their bodies — had been confined in narrow underground tunnels about 30 inches wide, “where they could neither stand nor move freely,” the families said, citing the investigation. Autopsies showed that the hostages “suffered from significant malnutrition, severe weight loss and long-term physical neglect,” that some had untreated injuries and that one “was found with signs of being tied up,” they said.
“These revelations provide irrefutable proof that the hostages still held in Gaza are in grave danger,” and that “their lives hang by a thread,” the statement said. The group renewed its call for a hostage deal, saying, “Time is running out.”
But international mediators don’t appear optimistic that a deal to secure the hostages’ freedom is near.
“We know how urgent this is,” John F. Kirby, a spokesman for President Biden, told reporters at a briefing on Monday, noting that American mediators had been working “night and day” on a deal. He blamed Hamas for the lack of progress, saying that the group changed some of the terms laid out previously, “and that has made it more difficult for us to get there.”
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