Israel believes 40 Gaza hostages alive of 133, Daily Mail claims; Shin Bet denies

Fear in Israel is growing that only approximately 40 of the 133 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 are still alive – so says the UK-based Daily Mail in a report published Sunday morning.

The report merely cited a “source” that said intelligence “is much easier to access than before October 7 when we had limited access to Gaza and we didn't have a lot of possibilities of sources.”

The approximation was allegedly based on intelligence gathered by the Shin Bet, but the security agency merely denied these claims.

“The publication in question is not true and is not in the opinion of the Shin Bet,” the agency said. “The numbers mentioned in the publication are in the writer's opinion only and are not based on information passed on by the Shin Bet.”

This report came shortly after, less than two weeks prior, US officials told the Wall Street Journal that they estimate most of the hostages taken from Israel and held by terror groups in the Gaza Strip are no longer alive.

CNN, at the same time, reported that Hamas told the mediators in the framework of hostage negotiations that it was unable to identify and locate 40 live hostages to carry out the first phase of the deal, according to an Israeli source, as well as another source privy to the details.