What Did Israel Say Its War Aims Were After October 7?
Israel’s own statement of its objectives, with the hostage counts attached: 207 returned, 48 remaining, on the Foreign Ministry’s count of September 2025.
48 hostages remained in Hamas’s captivity, living and deceased, on the count the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs published as at 14 September 2025 in its position statement Israel’s Objectives and Current Operation, Israel’s own count of its own war. That statement is the document in which an Israeli government body sets out what it says it is doing and attaches figures to it: hostages returned, hostages still held, and aid trucks entering Gaza. The Government of Israel published its own objective for the exchange in Decision 3396 of 9 October 2025, a framework for the release of all Israeli hostages. The Israeli record read for this page carries no published Security Cabinet text of war aims from October 2023.
| Figure | What it counts | Who published it | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| 207 | Hostages returned or recovered, 148 alive and 59 deceased, Israel’s own count | Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Since the October 7th attack, as at 14 September 2025 |
| 48 | Hostages remaining in Hamas’s captivity, living and deceased, Israel’s own count | Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs | As at 14 September 2025, 712 days after the abduction |
| More than 106,000 | Aid trucks stated to have entered Gaza, carrying over two million tons of food, water, medicine and equipment, Israel’s own count | Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs | Since the October 7th attack, as at 14 September 2025 |
| 48 | Hostages to be returned under the approved framework, 20 living, 2 whose deaths had not been determined and 26 deceased | Government of Israel, Decision 3396 | Within 72 hours of the deployment set by the decision, adopted 9 October 2025 |
| 1,722 | Detainees from Gaza approved for release, described in the decision as not involved in the events of 7 October 2023, of whom 1,411 held by the Prison Service and 311 by the IDF | Government of Israel, Decision 3396 | Adopted 9 October 2025 |
Israel’s Objectives and Current Operation counts 48 hostages still held
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs published its statement Israel’s Objectives and Current Operation through the Permanent Mission of Israel to the Multilateral Organizations in France, last updated 17 September 2025, with its figures stated as of 14 September 2025. The 48 hostages it reports as remaining in captivity, living and deceased, are Israel’s own count, published by a party to the events it describes, and the statement dates that count to a single day rather than to a period. The statement is where the objectives and the figures sit together, in one Israeli government document.
What that statement carries:
- The hostage counts, returned and remaining, as of 14 September 2025.
- The aid figures, given as floors: more than 106,000 trucks since the attack, and more than 12,000 trucks since May 2025, 80% of them carrying food.
- A referral of readers to COGAT’s aid data site for humanitarian detail, so the truck totals are Israel’s stated totals rather than an audited tally.
207 hostages returned or recovered, 148 alive and 59 deceased
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported 207 hostages returned or recovered since the October 7th attack, 148 of them alive and 59 deceased, as at 14 September 2025. That is Israel’s own count of returns and recoveries, not a count of the people taken on 7 October, and the statement publishes no figure for the latter. The two components sum to the published total.
The IDF states its forces act to remove any immediate threat
After the ceasefire took effect on 10 October 2025, the wording Israel uses for the purpose of its operations appears in the IDF Spokesperson’s war diary rather than in war-aims language. The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson published on 4 November 2025 that battle teams under Division 252 were operating east of the yellow line, a forward line inside the northern Gaza Strip, and on 13 April 2026 that forces under Southern Command are deployed in the area and will continue to act to remove any immediate threat. Both dispatches are the IDF’s own account of its own operations and its own characterisation of their basis, published by a party to the events described.
| Date published | What the Spokesperson published | Stated basis, in the IDF’s own words |
|---|---|---|
| 4 November 2025 | Brigade forces under Division 252 operating east of the yellow line, inside the northern Gaza Strip | “in accordance with the ceasefire agreement and the directives of the political echelon” |
| 13 April 2026 | Strikes during that week on armed operatives who approached the yellow line, said to have planned attacks against forces operating in the centre of the Gaza Strip | Forces “are deployed in the area in accordance with the agreement and will continue to act to remove any immediate threat” |
Source: Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson, war diary. Each entry is a single dated dispatch, and neither carries a cumulative total for the ceasefire period.
No Israeli body here publishes the October 2023 Security Cabinet text
The Israeli documents read for this page are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement of September 2025 and Government of Israel Decision 3396 of October 2025. Neither carries the text or the minute of the Security Cabinet decisions of 7 and 8 October 2023, and no Prime Minister’s Office statement of war aims from that week appears in the record read here. That absence is recorded rather than filled.
What the published October 2025 decision does carry, on the framework the cabinet approved:
- Its stated object, the release of all Israeli hostages, approved on a security-political opinion of the National Security Council.
- A ceasefire commencing at the adoption of the decision, with the IDF deployed per maps at annexes rather than withdrawn from the Strip.
- Paragraph 6, which cancels the ceasefire if the hostage return at paragraph 2.2 is not performed, and paragraph 4.3, which reserves termination to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence jointly.
- Paragraph 8.1, requiring publication of the decision and one annex on the Ministry of Justice website while withholding named lists. Annex B is classified, so the published text is not the whole instrument.
Which figures here may not be added together?
Every figure on this page is an Israeli body’s own count of its own activity, published by a party to the events it describes. The 207 returned and the 48 remaining are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ counts on one date, 14 September 2025, and neither is a count of the people taken on 7 October 2023. The 48 in the Ministry statement and the 48 in Decision 3396 are different quantities: one is a stock of people still held on a date, the other is the number the framework provides for returning. The 250 prisoners and the 1,722 detainees in Decision 3396 are separate categories in the decision’s own text and are not summed there. The aid truck totals are written as floors, so “more than 106,000” is not restated as an exact number.
Questions readers ask
Where does Israel state its objectives?
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs published them in Israel’s Objectives and Current Operation, a position statement last updated 17 September 2025.
How many hostages does Israel say are still held?
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported 48 remaining in captivity, living and deceased, as at 14 September 2025.
How many hostages does Israel say have come back?
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs counted 207 returned or recovered, 148 alive and 59 deceased, as at 14 September 2025.
Does Israel publish a figure for how many were taken on 7 October?
The Ministry statement read here publishes returns and those remaining, and states no figure for the number taken.
What did the Government of Israel decide about the hostages in October 2025?
The Government of Israel published Decision 3396 on 9 October 2025, approving a framework for the release of all Israeli hostages.
How many hostages did that framework cover?
Decision 3396 states 48: 20 living, 2 whose deaths had not been determined, and 26 deceased, to be returned within 72 hours of the deployment it sets.
Does the decision provide for withdrawal from Gaza?
Decision 3396 provides for the IDF to deploy according to annexed maps, and describes the later move as preventing friction with the population.
Is the ceasefire conditional in the decision’s text?
Decision 3396 states at paragraph 6 that if the hostage return is not performed the ceasefire is cancelled, and reserves termination to two ministers acting jointly.
What does the IDF say it is doing inside Gaza during the ceasefire?
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson published on 13 April 2026 that its forces are deployed in accordance with the agreement and will continue to act to remove any immediate threat, the IDF’s own account of its own operations.
Does the IDF publish a total for its operations since the ceasefire?
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson publishes dated dispatches in its war diary, and the two read here carry no cumulative total for the ceasefire period.
Who counted the aid trucks Israel cites?
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the truck totals as Israel’s own stated figures and refers readers to COGAT for humanitarian aid detail.
Are all the annexes to the ceasefire decision published?
Decision 3396 records that Annex B is classified and that further annexes are held in the Government Secretariat files.
Sources
- Government of Israel, 2025. Decision 3396, Framework for the release of all Israeli hostages. Government Secretariat, Prime Minister’s Office, adopted 9 October 2025. gov.il. Official or primary record.
- Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson, 2025. Division 252 activity in the yellow line area. War diary, 4 November 2025. idf.il/315132. A party’s own published account of its own operations.
- Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson, 2026. War diary, 13 April 2026. idf.il/337391. A party’s own published account of its own operations.
- Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Permanent Mission of Israel to the Multilateral Organizations in France, 2025. Israel’s Objectives and Current Operation. Government statement, last updated 17 September 2025. Official or primary record, self-reported.
