The brother of one of the Israeli hostages set to be freed in the first phase of the cease-fire deal told the Knesset that his loved one is likely already dead.
Speaking before the Knesset House Committee on Tuesday, Danny Elgarat said he has a strong reason to believe that his brother, Itzik Elgarat, is among the eight dead hostages to be released in the coming days, The Times of Israel reports.
“We know more today about the list that Hamas passed on,” Elgarat said of the list released on Sunday. “I won’t speak for others, but we will probably not receive him [Itzik] alive.”
The Hamas list, provided to Israeli negotiators, claimed eight of the 33 total hostages scheduled to be freed during the first six weeks of the cease-fire are dead.
Although the list did not provide specific names of the dead hostages, Israeli officials have said the document matches existing information.
IDF officials have reportedly reached out to families to temper their expectations on whether their loved ones will return home safely, including Yizhar Lifshitz, whose father Oded Lifshitz, 84, is among the initial 33 to be released.
“There’s a grave concern for his life after this last indication,” Lifshitz told Ynet. “The last sign of life for him was on Day 25.”
“He’s basically disappeared since then, from us and probably from Hamas too. It doesn’t bode well,” the heartbroken son added.
Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari also said there were “grave concerns” over the fate of Shiri Bibas and her two small children, Ariel and Kfir, whose kidnapping became a symbol of Hamas’ cruelty during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
The Bibas family is expected to be among those released in the first phase of the cease-fire, but a previous Hamas propaganda video claimed the mother and children were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Elgarat, who has repeatedly protested the Israeli government over the stalls in the hostage exchange deal, told the Knesset that his brother and others could have been saved if lawmakers had reached a deal sooner.
“Who will be held accountable for this decision that killed 40 hostages?” he asked the committee.
Following last week’s releases, there are still 26 hostages set to be freed by Hamas in the first phase of the deal. The IDF estimates that at least 33 of the 90 hostages still in captivity are dead.
