CNN’s record of the conditions of the hostages also suggests there are fewer than 40 living hostages who meet the proposed criteria.

With Hamas appearing to be unable to reach 40 in the proposed categories, Israel has pushed for Hamas to fill out the initial release with younger male hostages, including soldiers, the Israeli official said.

The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age. Hamas is expected to try to use to them in later phases to try to negotiate more significant concessions, including more high-level prisoners and a permanent end to the war.

I'm sorry, I'm just going to repeat the relevant part again: The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age.

The majority of the almost 100 hostages who remain alive are believed to be male IDF soldiers or men of military reserve age.

[–] RedditWanderer@lemmy.world 40 points 7 months ago

I feel like those shouldn't be called hostages, they're POWs

[–] lemmyman@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm lacking context or something because I don't understand why that is so significant.

[–] Alsephina@lemmy.ml 28 points 7 months ago

It means most of the hostages aren't "civilians" as many people claim. So they're more like POWs.

There aren't really many "civilians" in israel to begin with tbf, except children. Half the population are IDF conscripts, and most of the other half are fascist settlers and colonizers just the same. Those were the main casualties in the Oct 7 attack too.

[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

That's a big "or" isn't it? It was a music festival so it is no surprise there are a lot of young men.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 7 months ago

The hostages are believed to be Santa #or men of military reserve age