The IDF hopes to have a clearer picture of Israel’s dead, wounded, and kidnapped within 48 to 72 hours, it said Monday afternoon.
While there are rampant complaints that the identification process and providing notice to families about their loved ones has been too slow, garbled, and uneven (with some getting notices much faster than others), the IDF maintains that it is in an unprecedented situation.
On top of being caught by surprise by the Hamas invasion, there were no plans in place for having to identify and provide notice to such a large number of people all at once.
Taking into account that the number of dead, wounded, and kidnapped was more than 3,000, the IDF is only now fully rolling out with a greater volume of staff and organization to handle the effort.
IDF and Shin Bet intelligence combined
The process is made more complex because many soldiers and civilians were killed and counted together, which requires an additional level of coordination between the IDF and the Israel Police, which is authorized to handle identification and notices for civilians.
IDF Maj.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Alon is taking the lead in combining IDF intelligence and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) intelligence to best identify what has happened to people whose current status remains uncertain.
Already on Sunday, there were 50 staff members handling 3,000 requests for clarification or for providing information.So far, six burials had taken place, but the IDF said it planned to significantly speed up the burial process, starting Monday afternoon.
The IDF said it would work with Gal Hirsch, a former IDF brigadier general who the government has appointed to negotiate with Hamas, and third parties regarding the hostages taken to the Gaza Strip.