Hostages not 'top priority' for Israeli intelligence: Report

The Israeli hostages held by Hamas were not Tel Aviv's "top priority" and they cannot be saved without a deal, according to Israeli intelligence sources quoted in a new investigative report.

According to the investigation conducted by the Tel Aviv-based 972 online magazine in cooperation with Local Call news website, since the beginning of latest conflict in Gaza on October 7, the Israeli leadership has "relegated" the goal of ensuring the hostages’ safety in "favor of larger military and political goals" in the occupied territory.

Intelligence sources who spoke to the outlets, before the shooting of the three abductees by the Israeli army on Friday, affirmed that "during the initial stages of the war, the Israeli army’s intense bombardment of Gaza was conducted without having a clear picture of where many of the more than 240 hostages were being held."

The relentless airstrikes — which have so far killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population, and decimated large swathes of the besieged enclave — also continued "despite concerns that the bombings might endanger the lives of the hostages," according to the sources the report quoted as saying.

The story said that according to testimonies from newly freed Israeli hostages, who were released as part of exchange deals for Palestinian prisoners during a temporary cease-fire in late November, as well as from some of the hostages’ families, "one of the main fears of those held captive in Gaza was the threat of being hit by Israeli airstrikes and shelling."

Many of the hostages, they said, were held above ground rather than in tunnels, and were therefore "particularly vulnerable" to such attacks.

“The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) shelled extensively, destroying half of Gaza, while having little intelligence,” the story quoted one of its intelligence sources as saying.

“The source emphasized that the army ‘would not have killed hostages deliberately if they knew they were in a certain building,’ but that it nonetheless carried out thousands of strikes knowing full well that hostages might be also harmed, especially at a time when ‘there were many hostages held in private apartments (above ground)’,” it added.

“In the first two or three weeks, we didn’t have enough intelligence about the hostages, and they were not the top priority,” according to another source quoted as saying in the report.

“We didn’t start the day with an update on the status of the hostages. It wasn’t our top priority then — and the truth is, they aren’t today either. Unfortunately, I don’t think the army can (free the hostages through rescue operations). I don’t think we will be able to release hostages without a deal.”