Mother of Gaza hostage is furious over mixed signals on how many captives are dead

JERUSALEM — Ruhama Bohbot was at home watching the news when she heard U.S. President Donald Trump say something new: Three of the 24 hostages Israel considered to be alive in Gaza had probably died.

‘‘As of today, it’s 21, three have died,’’ Trump said during a swearing-in ceremony for his special envoy to the Middle East.

Bohbot, who lives outside of Jerusalem, froze in terror — and then fury. Her 36-year-old son, Elkana, has been captive in Gaza since being abducted by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023.

No Israeli officials have reached out to the Bohbot family to say the number of hostages believed to be alive had changed. Yet Bohbot thought back to a public event last week, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said 24 of the hostages still in Gaza were alive. A mic picked up his wife, Sara, as she quietly said, ‘‘fewer.’’

Later, Netanyahu’s office dismissed the moment as a slip of the tongue.

‘‘So we’re just continuing to live in hope that everything will be OK ... even amidst all of the things that are not OK. Because it’s impossible to know,’’ Bohbot said.

Netanyahu said late Wednesday Israel was confident that 21 of the 59 remaining hostages are still alive but that there was ‘‘doubt’’ about three others. An Israeli official said the three, who he did not identify, are considered alive until there is evidence proving otherwise. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.

If there is ‘‘new information being kept from us, give it to us immediately,’’ the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group, said Wednesday.

Hamas militants killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 during their cross-border attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Elkana Bohbot and dozens of others were captured from a music festival, where more than 300 people were killed.

Israel’s offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials. The officials do not distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.

Hamas has published three videos of Elkana Bohbot in the past months which were filmed under duress. In the most recent video, from mid-April, Elkana holds a fake telephone conversation with his wife, Rivka; their son, Raem; his mother; and his brother — pleading with them to help him get out of Gaza.

While the videos were a sign of life, Bohbot knows that they don’t guarantee that her son is still alive. Hearing the government’s approval this week to expand operations in Gaza deepened her concern about the fate of her son and the other hostages. Israel is ‘‘failing so utterly’’ to rescue the hostages, she said.

Israel’s decision to freeze all humanitarian aid likely meant her son also wasn’t getting food, she said. Humanitarian aid is the primary food source for 80% of Palestinians in Gaza, the World Food Program said in its monthly report for April, though that figure has likely risen in the past month.

Israel stopped all humanitarian aid in March, the longest period there has been a freeze on humanitarian aid during the war, leading many organizations to warn of severe malnutrition and hunger in Gaza.

‘‘I just want to imagine that he’s holding on and that he’s okay for now, that’s my hope and that’s my belief right now,’’ she said.

Bohbot is desperately hoping that Trump’s visit to the region next week may bring a breakthrough in ceasefire negotiations. Her family is still paying rent on a stall at a market in Tel Aviv, where Elkana had been planning to open a gourmet ice cream shop.

The family will mark Raem’s fifth birthday next month – his second during his father’s captivity. Raem has started saying things like ‘‘if my daddy comes home,’’ to which the family gently corrects him – ‘‘your daddy is coming home, just wait a little bit longer,’’ Bohbot said.

‘‘He has binoculars that he made in kindergarten, he goes out occasionally and takes a look in the binoculars to look for his father,’’ Bohbot said.