Netanyahu casts doubt on President Trump’s account of the killing of three Israeli prisoners in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cast doubt on Wednesday on the fate of three hostages held in the Gaza Strip since the October 7, 2023, attack, following conflicting reports about them.

“We know for certain that 21 hostages are alive, there is no dispute about that… There are three others, and unfortunately we do not know if they are alive,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.

“So what is certain is that 21 are alive, but we won’t abandon anyone, not the remaining three or all the others,” he added.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that three of the hostages in the Gaza Strip had been killed, noting that only 21 were still alive.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s coordinator for hostage and missing persons affairs, Gal Hirsch, denied Trump’s claims, saying the number of living hostages held was 24 and hadn’t changed.

Hirsch posted on his X account, “Hamas is holding 59 hostages, including 24 on the list of living hostages and 35 on the list of those officially confirmed dead”.

According to the latest statistics published by the Israeli military, of the 251 people kidnapped by Hamas during its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, 58 are still being held in the Palestinian enclave, including 34 who have died.

In addition to these, there is an Israeli soldier who was killed in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, and whose body is still being held by Hamas.

Four Israeli soldiers were injured on Wednesday when an explosive device exploded in the city of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, while they were participating in the genocide against Palestinians.

The Israeli army said on its X platform: “A fighter from the elite Golani Brigade was seriously wounded today in a battle in the southern Gaza Strip and was transferred to the hospital for treatment”.

Channels 12 and 14 (private) reported that three other soldiers were moderately injured in the same incident, as a result of an explosive device exploding.

They reported that two soldiers from the Oketz unit and a third from the Golani Brigade sustained moderate injuries and were evacuated to a hospital for treatment.

Oketis is an Israeli unit whose mission is to use trained dogs for specific military missions.

As of Wednesday, 854 Israeli officers and soldiers have been killed since the start of the war of extermination on October 7, 2023, including 6 since March 18, according to army data.

Meanwhile, 5,851 officers and soldiers have been injured, including 2,643 since the start of the ground invasion of Gaza on October 27, 2023, according to the army, which faces local accusations of concealing a higher death toll.