Israeli general reveals most hostages killed by Israeli forces

Nitzan Alon, a retired general and former head of the Israeli army’s Hostages and Missing Persons Unit, told the Hebrew-language newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in a controversial interview that most Israeli captives in the Jabalia area in northern Gaza were not killed by Hamas, but by Israeli army fire.

The retired general described the deaths of a large number of Israeli captives as a “direct result of intelligence gaps and chaos following the October 7, 2023 attack,” noting that the army’s estimates of captives’ locations were often inaccurate due to their constant movement.

He emphasized: “Many of the hostages were initially transferred alive to Gaza, but later lost their lives during Israeli army attacks and ground battles in Jabalia.”

Since the ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas has returned all 20 surviving captives and 26 bodies in exchange for around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. However, the bodies of two other killed captives—a police officer of the Israeli regime and a Thai worker—remain in Gaza.