IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir has reportedly told hostage families that their loved ones were on his mind amid the offensive to take over Gaza City, which military officials have warned could imperil the captives.
Hebrew media also reported Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had in the first half of 2024 shot down a plan by Zamir’s predecessor, Herzi Halevi, to release all the hostages at once as part of a ceasefire deal.
Zamir, who has reportedly urged Netanyahu to forego the Gaza City operation and accept a ceasefire-hostage deal, said in a recent meeting with hostage families that “the operation will be conducted by me, with responsibility toward the troops and the hostages,” according to Channel 12 news.
“I believe in the operational plan. The people of Israel should know that I state, and will continue to state, my professional opinion. The hostages are on my mind. I am acting in the most responsible way possible,” Zamir reportedly said.
The outlet did not say when Zamir spoke with the families, or who was present.
Last month, Hamas said it had agreed to the partial ceasefire-hostage release deal that was almost identical to one Israel had previously approved. Jerusalem has not yet responded to the proposal, nor has Netanyahu brought it before the cabinet for deliberation, reportedly saying Sunday that the proposal is “not on the table.”
Netanyahu says in public that he will not accept a partial deal with Hamas and is instead demanding a comprehensive agreement that would return all the captives at once and see the Palestinian terrorist organization surrender and demilitarize.
The premier reiterated his position in a conversation with the parents of hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Alon Ohel on Friday, after the two captives were seen in a propaganda video released by Hamas, Channel 12 reported.
During the 25-minute conversation, Ohel’s parents reportedly told the premier that Alon is “not like himself” in the video and that he “is alive now, [we] need to do everything to reach a deal.”
Ohel’s family has long warned that he could lose eyesight in his right eye due to shrapnel injuries, among other wounds. In a statement via the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the family said medical experts who analyzed the new footage of Alon assessed he is now blind in his right eye.
“We were shocked to see Alon’s condition. After consulting with eye specialists in Israel and around the world, it is clear that Alon has lost sight in his right eye,” said the family, reiterating its request that neither the video nor images from it be published by the media or shared online. “The frequent blinking we observe indicates severe difficulty focusing and seeing for extended periods.”
“No international law permits holding an injured civilian captive without proper medical treatment,” the family added. “The responsibility for Alon’s well-being lies with his captors and Hamas leadership, who are obligated to preserve his life and health according to international law.”
Meanwhile, Serbia’s Ambassador to the United States Dragan Šutanovac told the Walla news site on Friday that the footage of Ohel, who holds Serbian citizenship, was an encouraging sign.
Šutanovac told Walla that Belgrade would pursue diplomatic channels to ensure the return of Ohel and the other hostages.
“Alon, like the other hostages held by Hamas, is totally innocent,” he said. “We consider his continued captivity dire and unacceptable.”
The footage was the first time Ohel had been seen in a video since he and Gilboa-Dalal were abducted from the Reim-area Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Channel 13 reported that the military believes the new footage, released Friday but apparently dated August 28, 2025, was filmed in an area of the Shati refugee camp, in an area of Gaza City which the IDF does not control.
According to the network, the military admits it has incomplete intelligence on the locations of the hostages in Gaza, and assesses that Hamas may try to move captives to Gaza City ahead of the intensified IDF operation there.
Lishay Miran-Lavi, wife of hostage Omri Miran, told supporters at a demonstration at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square that based on conversations with officials, Israel is headed for the “murder of hostages” with its new offensive.
Speaking at a Shabbat reception marking 700 days since the October 7 massacre, Miran-Lavi said: “In recent days, the families of hostages received calls from official sources.”
“I cannot give too much detail at this stage, and I don’t want to hurt other families, but I can say to you knowingly: The Israeli government is laying the groundwork for ‘murder of hostages B’,” she said, apparently alluding to Gideon’s Chariots B, the IDF’s name for the Gaza City operation.
“This is not a theory, this is not a worry — this is a real-time alert that’s coming from senior official sources,” she added. “I hope that in the coming days the public can gain more exposure to this, and that the matter won’t be kept from it or censored.”
“I am concerned that the Israeli government is waging a war of attrition against us, against citizens of Israel in general and the families of hostages in particular,” said Miran-Lavi.
Citing unnamed sources, the Kan public broadcaster reported Friday that in the months before Israel began its May 2024 offensive in Rafah, then-IDF chief Herzi Halevi sought to convince Netanyahu to accept a deal that would have released all the hostages together.
According to the plan formulated by the military, the release of all the hostages held in Gaza would have made it easier for the IDF to defeat Hamas.
However, when Halevi raised the proposal at a meeting of the high-level security cabinet, Netanyahu quickly shot it down as representing “defeat” for Israel, according to Kan.
Netanyahu’s dismissal of the plan was reportedly so firm that it was not even suggested to Israel’s hostage-ceasefire negotiators, with the government instead pushing for a phased agreement.
The Prime Minister’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the report, Kan said.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 48 hostages, including 47 of those abducted on October 7, 2023. They include the bodies of at least 26 confirmed dead by the IDF. Twenty are believed to be alive and there are grave concerns for the well-being of two others, Israeli officials have said. Hamas is also holding the body of an IDF soldier killed in Gaza in 2014.