A high-ranking Hamas official and negotiator for the terrorist group said "no one has an idea" about how many of the over 250 hostages taken from Israel on October 7 are still alive.
"I don’t have any idea about that," the official, Osama Hamdan, told CNN during an interview in Beirut, Lebanon, when asked about the status of the hostages. "No one has an idea about this."
Israeli intelligence believes that there are around 100 living hostages in Gaza and the remains of around 30 hostages who have been killed.
The admission by Hamdan comes just days after Hamas rejected a ceasefire proposal backed by Israel, the United States, and the United Nations Security Council. The first two of the three stages in the proposal had terms of hostage releases, with some being released in the first stage in exchange for a six-week truce and IDF withdrawal from Gaza. Then, in the second phase, the remaining captives would be released.
Later in the interview, Hamdan minimized the mental anguish endured by the four Israeli hostages rescued in an IDF operation, placing the blame squarely on Israel.
"I believe if they have mental problem, this is because of what Israel have done in Gaza. Because [no one can] handle what Israel is doing, bombing each day, killing civilians, killing women and children … they saw that [with)] their own eyes," Hamdan said.
Hamdan also claimed, in reference to the hostages’ health after enduring eight months in captivity, "they were better than before."