US President Donald Trump told reporters that there are only 21 living hostages remaining in Gaza, announcing that three had died in captivity.
“They said that only 24 are living, and I now correct… I say 21 because as of today, it’s 21. Three have died. So this, this is a terrible situation,” Trump told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday after he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
He did not follow up to say which hostages have supposedly died.
“We’re trying to get the hostages out. We’ve gotten a lot of them out. As the expression goes, ‘there’s 21 plus a lot of dead bodies.'”
In a statement on X/Twitter, Gal Hirsch, the coordinator for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, disputed Trump’s assertion that there are now 21 living hostages.
“Currently, 59 hostages are being held by the terrorist organization Hamas. Twenty-four of them are on the list of living hostages. Thirty-five of them are on the list of deceased hostages, with their deaths officially determined. Fifty-four of the hostages are Israeli citizens. Five of the hostages are foreign nationals,” he wrote.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum maintains continuous contact with all the hostages’ families, and we are available to them for updates, clarifications, and hostages’ status reviews in various ways and at any time. All the families of the hostages are always updated with the information we have regarding their loved ones.”
Trump, Sara Netanyahu said fewer than 24 hostages alive
Trump previously said that he thought the number of remaining living hostages was fewer than 24, the number that a member of Israel’s hostage deal negotiation team provided The Jerusalem Post.
“Out of 59 hostages, 24 are alive – but my understanding now is that that number is even smaller,” Trump said.
“This is also the official number submitted by the coordinator for the hostages and missing to the mediators during the negotiations,” the anonymous source told the Post.
This comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli media last week that 24 hostages were alive in Gaza as his wife, Sara, appeared to correct him.
“There are up to 24 living hostages in Gaza,” Netanyahu said. Sara whispered beside him, “Fewer,” to which Netanyahu emphasized, “Up to 24 living hostages.”
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