An Israeli army statement earlier in the day said a majority of the hostages were alive according to Reuters.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's adviser Mark Regev would not elaborate on the statement, but told CNN: "We've said what we know, they're alive."
He continued: "So our working assumption has to be that they are waiting for us. That they are prepared for an Israeli assault. And our challenge will be to surprise them tactically on the ground, to catch them unaware."
The strategy so far seems to be to find out how long they can stay alive with the water and power cut to the region.
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1 day ago - We are shocked to read about the critical situation in Gaza since Israel turned off water supplies to the Gaza Strip more than a week ago. Sanitation services have collapsed, including Gaza’s last functioning seawater desalination plant. With clean water running out (Report, 17 October), more than 2 million people are at risk and are resorting to drinking dirty water, with increasing risks of disease, dehydration and death.
2 weeks ago - Energy Minister Israel Katz announces that he has instructed authorities to cut off water to the Gaza Strip. “I instructed that the water supply from Israel to Gaza be cut off immediately,” Katz says in a statement, adding that the flow of power and fuel was ceased two days ago.
2 days ago - The taps in the besieged Gaza Strip are running dry, and residents are scrambling to save every last drop of water as the shortage reaches a crisis point.
1 day ago - United Nations officials are warning that millions of Palestinians face dehydration and are at risk of waterborne disease in an escalating water crisis as Israel continues to withhold essential supplies from Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The last functioning desalination plant shut down on Sunday due to lack of fuel, as did the last functioning wastewater treatment plant, the UN reported. Israel turned on one line of water in the south of Gaza for three hours
2 days ago - Israel on Sunday said it had switched water supplies back on at one “specific point” in southern Gaza, outside the city of Khan Younis, but aid workers in Gaza said they had not seen evidence the water was back. Hamas said on Monday that Israel had not resumed water supplies, but an Israeli official stressed that some water was being provided to an area in the south of the territory. Gaza’s two main sources for electricity – power lines from Israel and the Gaza power plant – have stopped functioning.
Egypt reports Israel lured Palestinians in Gaza south by announcing the water was turned on there, which it was not, and then bombed the area of retreat.
Egypt news website Aharam - We must not allow a civilian exodus from Gaza to Sinai - this could end the Palestinian cause: Sisi tells Sunak
Since the start of the Israel war on Gaza in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, President El-Sisi has repeatedly stressed Egypt's rejection of the Israeli policies of collective punishment against the civilian population in the strip and any attempt to displace the residents of Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula.
Aid to Gaza still waiting
Egypt has organized urgent relief for the Palestinians in Gaza with tens of trucks carrying humanitarian aid, donated by Egypt and various Arab countries, ready to cross the Rafah border crossing with Gaza to deliver food and medicine.
However, Israel has refused to allow aid to enter the besieged Gaza Strip.
Previous reports claim Israel urged civilians in Gaza to move south by turning on the water there. Then Egypt later claimed (above) that Israel launched strikes against that area driving civilians back north. Biden promised aid to Gaza, but reports of U.N. aid at the Rafah crossing cannot reach civilians because Israel is reportedly bombing the area of Gaza where civilians were told to retreat.
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