Israel has assessed that “at least one or two” hostages held in Gaza are in life-threatening condition, according to a Hebrew media report on Saturday, a day after US President Donald Trump suggested that fewer than 20 hostages remain alive, bucking Israel’s official figures and causing despair among the captives’ families.

According to Israel’s Channel 12 television network, Israeli officials fear that several of the living hostages are in serious danger of death and in dire need of medical attention.

“Releasing the hostages is an urgent need,” an unnamed senior official told Channel 12.”

However, the report said the officials were unsure what led Trump to conclude that “a couple of them are not around any longer” during a press conference on Friday.

In the wake of Trump’s remarks, Israel’s hostage point man Gal Hirsch told the families, “According to the information we have, there is no change in the number of living hostages.”

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“Twenty of the hostages are alive, two [others] are in grave danger for their lives, 28 are no longer alive and have been declared deceased,” Hirsch wrote to the families.

Not satisfied, the families demanded that they be presented with all available information on their loved ones’ conditions.

Israel has long stated that terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 50 hostages, including 49 of the 251 abducted by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023. At least 28 have been confirmed dead by the IDF, 20 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.

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The heightened concern for the hostages came as Israel prepares to launch a large-scale operation to conquer Gaza City and amid a flurry of international efforts to bring the sides back to the negotiation table to forestall the operation.

According to a Channel 13 report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided Saturday to send a negotiating delegation to participate in talks with mediators to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, almost a week after Hamas said it agreed to a proposal for a phased hostage release deal that Israel had previously agreed to.

The outlet reported that Netanyahu’s decision came after he was told in a meeting that the hostages could be executed by their captors or killed by IDF munitions if the army presses on with its planned takeover of Gaza City.

Despite Netanyahu reportedly acquiescing to send a delegation to the upcoming talks, Channel 13 said that there was currently no date or location set for the talks.

Meanwhile, Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt have grown increasingly frustrated with Netanyahu over the zigzagging he has done in the past few months regarding a potential hostage release and ceasefire deal, Channel 12 reported on Saturday.

The two mediating countries were able to successfully convince Hamas to walk back almost all of its demands and agree to a framework that it had rejected in the past, and which Israel had previously agreed to, only to discover that they would now be forced to try and convince Israel to restart talks on the phased agreement.

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The deal that Hamas agreed to earlier this week would allow for a 60-day ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and the release of 10 living hostages. During the truce, additional talks would be held on freeing the remaining hostages and permanently ending the war.

Although Israel had agreed to this framework months ago, Netanyahu instead now insists on a comprehensive deal rather than a partial, phased agreement.

Netanyahu’s vision for a comprehensive deal to end the war includes the disarmament of Hamas and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, as well as the transfer of governance to a body that is not Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.

His apparent U-turn regarding a partial, phased deal has caused significant displeasure among the mediators, and with Egypt in particular. A senior official in Cairo was quoted by Channel 12 as saying that “Israel’s conditions are unworkable and harm the chances of reaching a ceasefire.”

Trump growing impatient with Gaza war plans

Another Channel 12 report aired Saturday said that Netanyahu and his top adviser, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, assessed during a recent meeting that Israel has Trump’s full support for its military offensive in Gaza City, but only for a limited period.

The network quoted the two as saying that Trump wants a quick and decisive operation, and doesn’t want the war against Hamas to drag on.

During the same meeting, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir was said to have clashed with far-right ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who assailed him for saying the military wasn’t sure how long it would take to evacuate Gaza City’s civilian population.

“We ordered you [to carry out] a quick operation. In my opinion, you can besiege them. Whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them. No water, no electricity, they can die of hunger, or surrender. This is what we want and you’re capable [of doing it],” the network quoted Smotrich as telling Zamir.

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Ben Gvir then asked the IDF chief whether he was “scared of the military advocate general” — the IDF’s top attorney — to which Zamir pointed out that the military is “operating in other areas, in Khan Younis and Rafah.”

“This isn’t what the political leadership ordered. You don’t want to defeat [Hamas],” Smotrich declared of Zamir, who was said to have retorted: “You don’t understand anything. You don’t know what a brigade or battalion is. This takes time.”

The planned campaign to capture Gaza City has sparked a major international outcry, with governments and humanitarian groups warning of potentially disastrous consequences for Gaza’s civilians, noting widespread malnutrition that has recently worsened significantly in the Palestinian enclave throughout the 22-month war.

It has also intensified fear among the families of the hostages, who worry that it will serve as the final nail in the coffin of their loved ones, as Hamas has vowed to execute captives if IDF troops approach their positions.

Palestinian media outlets report that the Israeli army uprooted thousands of olive trees in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir over the past three days — an area of ​​about 300 dunams (74 acres) — following a shooting attack in the area last week carried out by a resident.

In addition, a three-day curfew was imposed on the village, which was lifted this morning, according to the reports.

جريمة تستهدف الأرض.. الجرافات الإسرائيلية تقتلع المئات من أشجار الزيتون في قرية المغير شمال رام الله#قناة_الغد #فلسطين #الضفة_الغربية pic.twitter.com/lAxB4IMgAP — قناة الغد (@AlGhadTV) August 23, 2025

On Thursday night, the chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, during a visit to the scene of the shooting, said that al-Mughayyir would “pay a heavy price” for the attack the previous day.

“Every village and every enemy needs to know that if they carry out an attack against the residents, they will pay a heavy price; they will experience a curfew, they will experience a closure, and they will experience ‘shaping operations,’” he said, apparently referring to the uprooting of the trees.

A “shaping operation” in military terms refers to efforts to create or preserve advantageous conditions for future operations by affecting enemy vulnerabilities.

⭕️نقلت صحيفة “هآرتس”، عن جيش الاحتلال قوله إنه اقتلع 3100 شجرة في قرية المغير بالضفة الغربية. ????قال قائد المنطقة الوسطى في جيش الاحتلال آفي بلوت، إن جميع قرى الضفة الغربية يجب أن “تعرف أنه إذا ارتكبت هجومًا، فسوف تدفع ثمنًا باهظًا، وسوف تواجه حظر التجول والحصار”. pic.twitter.com/absYLvOwpB — وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) August 24, 2025

“We will now focus our effort… on the village of al-Mughayir, which has carried out quite a few attacks recently; we are now locking in on this village,” Bluth said, according to remarks published by the IDF.

“We will also deliver this message to the village: The village carries out an attack, no problem, you want a spotlight on you, we know how to shine a spotlight. The first mission is to hunt down and thwart the cell and the terrorist,” he said.

“The second mission is to carry out ‘shaping operations’ here, and yes, so that everyone will be deterred, and not only this village, but any village that tries to raise a hand against any of the residents,” Bluth added.

On Wednesday, Israeli reserve soldiers from a rapid response team made up of residents of local settlements detained a Palestinian suspected of opening fire on a group of Israeli civilians near the settlement of Adei Ad earlier in the day, the military said.

The 30-year-old Palestinian, a resident of al-Mughayyir, had allegedly fired at the Israelis, without hitting any, before engaging in a physical altercation during which an Israeli man was lightly hurt.

He was nabbed several hours later, according to a military official.

During an initial interrogation by the Shin Bet, the suspect provided “findings that tied him to the attack,” the security agency said. Israeli forces also found a handgun suspected to have been used in the attack, the IDF and police added.

Australia will recognize a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces, in a quick about-face after saying two weeks ago that he didn’t plan to imminently make such a move.

“Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority. We will work with the international community to make this right a reality,” he says following a cabinet meeting, framing the move as “part of a coordinated global effort building momentum for a two-state solution.”

He says Hamas may take no part in such a state, but argues that Israel “continues to defy” international law, with the situation in Gaza “beyond the world’s worst dreams.”

The move is “predicated on commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,” Albanese says, adding that those commitments include no role for Hamas in a Palestinian government, demilitarization of Gaza and the holding of elections — which haven’t been held since 2006.

He also says the PA has pledged to affirm Israel’s right to exist in peace and security, and to hold substantial reforms, including international oversight to prevent incitement and abolishing a payment system for Palestinian security prisoners and families of dead assailants, including terrorists, which is known as “pay for slay.”

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese says.

He adds that over the past two weeks, he has spoken on the matter with the leaders of Britain, France, New Zealand and Japan, as well as with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Albanese says his call with Netanyahu was civil and relatively long, adding that “the arguments that he put to me were very similar to the arguments that he put more than a year ago. It seems to me very clearly and I put the argument to him that we need a political solution — not a military one.”

Ahead of Albanese’s announcement, Netanyahu on Sunday criticized Australia and other European countries that have moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole … this canard is disappointing and I think it’s actually shameful,” he said.

The development follows weeks of urging from within Albanese’s cabinet and from pro-Palestinian activists in Australia to recognize a Palestinian state and amid growing criticism from officials in his government over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Australia’s government has also criticized plans announced in recent days by Netanyahu for a new military offensive aimed at conquering Gaza City.

In the final question of his English-language press conference, Netanyahu is asked about his bitter description of countries’ preparing to recognize Palestinian statehood as rewarding terror. But perhaps, it is put to him, those countries do recognize Israel’s right to defend itself, and “are now struggling to stomach what they’re seeing you and your military doing in Gaza?”

“First of all,” Netanyahu responds, “those who say that Israel has a right to defend itself are also saying, ‘But don’t exercise that right.’ When we do what any country would do, faced with this genocidal terrorist organization that has performed the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust,” he says, “I think we’re actually applying force judiciously, and they know it. They know what they would do if right next to Melbourne, or right next to Sydney, you had this horrific attack. I think you would do at least what we’re doing… [although] maybe not as efficiently and as precisely as we’re doing it. We’ve lost quite a few soldiers in that effort.”

He then dismisses “the prevailing assumption… that the problem that we have with the Palestinians is the absence of a Palestinian state. And [that] if they were given a Palestinian state, they would stop the efforts to destroy the Jewish state. But the Palestinians were offered a state many times, including in the partition resolution, and they turned it down,” he says. “They were offered statehood by my predecessors, with lavish, lavish concessions. They turned it down.”

This, he says, is “because the Palestinians are not about creating a state. They’re about destroying a state. That’s why they opposed the Jewish National Movement to create a state. It’s called Zionism. They opposed it before the inception of the Jewish state, and they’ve opposed it since. They’ve opposed it when they had Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, and Gaza in their hold. They didn’t say, Let’s start. Let’s create a state there. They didn’t say that. Because, again, their goal is the destruction of a state.

“It defies imagination or understanding how intelligent people around the world, including seasoned diplomats, government leaders, and respected journalists, fall for this absurdity,” he marvels. “It’s so easy to verify.”

He says Hamas had a de facto state in Gaza, which it used “to launch a war of terror against Israel,” and that it will do so again if it is able.

As for the Palestinian Authority, he goes on, it seeks first to reduce Israel to “indefensible boundaries” via organs like the ICC and UN, “and then deliver the blow. Because Israel is too strong in its present configuration.”

The PA and Hamas “have no difference about the goal.” He says that is why Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank “are educated with exactly the same textbooks,” and why the PA maintains a “pay for slay” policy to encourage the murder of Jews. “The real reason that this conflict persists is not because of the absence of a Palestinian state, but the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any boundary,” he charges.

Giving the Palestinians a state, he says, would not see them abandoning the “goal of destroying the Jewish state. All you’re doing is you’re bringing the next war closer.”

“Again, Hamas had a state. It just brought the war closer. If you did the same thing in Judea and Samaria, right above Tel Aviv, enveloping Jerusalem, some say cutting Jerusalem into two… you’re going to have the radicals again take it over, Iran take it over, and start a war from improved boundaries.”

The Palestinians should have “all the powers to govern themselves in the places where they live and none of the powers to threaten Israel,” he says. “They should obviously reform their whole education system. They should… accept that Israel is here to stay, not as a fact, as a physical or geographic fact, but as a fact of historical equity. If they want to live here, next to us, they have to stop seeking our destruction. To give them an independent state with all the trimmings is to invite a future war, and a certain war.

“That’s something that today, the Israeli public forcefully opposes,” he notes. Most of the Jewish public and the vast majority of MKs oppose a Palestinian state “for the simple reason that they know it won’t bring peace, it will bring war. To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole… and buy this canard, it is disappointing. And I think it’s actually shameful.”

But, he vows, “it’s not going to change our position. We will not commit national suicide to get a good op-ed for two minutes,” he concludes. “We won’t do that.”

More than a dozen former senior security officials put out a joint video with a call to end the war in Gaza, arguing that Israel has racked up more losses than victories, and that the fighting has dragged on for political reasons rather than being based on strategic military decisions.

Among the 19 retired IDF chiefs of staff, intelligence chiefs, Shin Bet and Mossad directors and police commissioners are former IDF chief of staff and prime minister Ehud Barak, former chiefs of staff Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Halutz, and ex-Shin Bet director Yoram Cohen.

“Each of these people sat in cabinet meetings, operated in the inner circles, attended all the most sensitive decision-making processes, the most delicate,” says a voiceover at the start of the video by way of introduction. “Together, they have more than a thousand years’ experience in national security and diplomacy.”

In the video, the men argue that the fighting in Gaza could have ended long ago, and demand that Israel end the war with a permanent ceasefire and comprehensive hostage deal that will see the release of all 50 remaining hostages in one fell swoop.

💥Israeli Security Chiefs Through the Decades “End the war and bring the hostages home!” 🇮🇱🇮🇱 This is an extraordinary call, unlike anything we’ve seen in Israel. Almost everyone who was once at the wheel of a major security organization: Nadav Argaman, Shin Bet Director

Tamir… pic.twitter.com/JCCgMD6XHj — UnXeptable (@UnxeptableD) August 3, 2025

“We have a duty to stand up and say what we need to say,” former Shin Bet director Ami Ayalon says. “This war started as a just war. It was a defensive war. But once we achieved all its military objectives, once we achieved a brilliant military victory against all our enemies, this war stopped being a just war. It is leading the State of Israel to the loss of its security and identity.”

Former military intelligence chief Amos Malka posits that Israel is “well over a year past the point where we could have ended the war with a sufficient operational achievement.”

Instead, supplies ex-Shin Bet director Nadav Argaman, “we are now mostly offsetting losses.”

“We are on the precipice of defeat,” concurs former Mossad director Tamir Pardo.

“What the world sees today is of our own creation,” he says of the dire humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, brought about by long months of war with Hamas. “We are hiding behind a lie that we wrought. This lie was sold to the Israeli public, and the world has long since understood that it doesn’t reflect the real picture.”

“There are moments that represent a black flag in which one must stand firm and say: This far and no further,” Ya’alon declares. “Right now, we have a government that the messianic zealots have pulled in a certain, irrational direction.”

“They are a minority,” agrees Cohen, “but the problem is that the minority controls the policy.”

He says that anyone who believes Israel can “reach every terrorist and every pit and every weapon, and at the same time bring our hostages home,” is entertaining a fantasy.

The security officials call for those currently in the offices they once held to take a stance against the continuation of the war.

They must “bravely stand up before the prime minister and before the cabinet and say their piece… about this war and its futility,” says Argaman.

“It is their duty to say what they can do and what cannot be done, even if someone really wants it,” he adds.