Gaza hostage negotiations: 'Israel needs to change its strategy', expert says As the war in Gaza enters its seventh month, "Israel needs to change its strategy" on negotiations regarding the release of hostages held in the Strip, former hostage negotiator Gershon Baskin told FRANCE 24. The Israeli army on Saturday said it recovered the body of a 47-year-old farmer believed to be killed in January by militants with Islamic Jihad, one of the groups that entered southern Israel in the Oct. 7 attack, killed more than 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages.