Israel will produce its own weapons, enabling it to face any threat, incoming IDF chief of staff Eyal Zamir said in a first speech on Sunday since his appointment to the role. Zamir called for Israel to be more self-reliant.

We are a military that is very proud to implement the [government’s] policy, to implement the decision to return the hostages, and we will be just as proud to return and fight,” Halevi

It is believed that at least two of the six American hostages still held in Gaza are alive — Sagui Dekel-Chen, 35, who grew up in Bloomfield, Connecticut, and Edan Alexander, 19, from Tenafly, New Jersey. Four other Americans are believed to have been killed in captivity.