After six Israeli hostages were found dead recently in the Gaza Strip, shocking the country, the families of the remaining captives hoped that the tragedy might pressure Israel to accept a cease-fire agreement to secure their release.

But now, as Israeli fighter jets swoop over Lebanon and Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel, the conversation in Israel has shifted toward a potential war in the north. Few believe that an agreement to free their loved ones in Gaza is imminent.

After nearly a year, roughly 100 of the more than 250 hostages held hostage by the Gaza terrorist group Hamas since their Oct. 7 attacks remain in the clutches of militants in Gaza. They include women and older people kidnapped from their homes, as well as soldiers abducted from military bases.

Israel and Hamas are deadlocked in negotiations over conditions for a truce that would free them. Israeli authorities have declared that more than 30 hostages are already presumed dead, and their families fear that number will only rise as their loved ones languish in captivity.

With all eyes on Israel’s escalating battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon, many families now fear any hopes to save the hostages are rapidly vanishing, said Itzik Horn, whose sons Eitan, 38, and Iair, 46, are still held.

“We’ve been abandoned again and again” by the Israeli government, said Itzik Horn. “And now the resources and attention are heading to the north.”

Eitan and Iair Horn were abducted from Nir Oz, Israel, a border village that was devastated by the Hamas-led attack. Many of its roughly 400 members were either killed or kidnapped by Hamas militants.

Eitan Horn was visiting his brother, who held various roles in Nir Oz, including running the local pub, when the attack began. Soon afterward, Itzik Horn, their father, lost contact with them. In November, a weeklong truce with Hamas secured the release of 105 hostages, some of whom attested to having seen the two brothers in the tunnels, Itzik Horn said.

Noam Dan, a relative of Ofer Kalderon — who was also abducted from Nir Oz — accused Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, of “cruelly neglecting” the remaining hostages in favor of the escalation. Kalderon’s children, Sahar and Erez, were released in the weeklong truce with Hamas in November.

Netanyahu has said that he is committed to securing the release of the remaining hostages. But he has repeatedly said he will not agree to a cease-fire with Hamas that compromises on what he called Israel’s fundamental security needs.

Like many close to the remaining captives, Dan said she believed Netanyahu was more worried about the future of his government than securing the release of the hostages. Some of his coalition partners have opposed recent cease-fire proposals.

In Gaza

Palestinians in Gaza similarly fear that their plight will be shoved aside as the conflict there nears a once-unthinkable milestone: a year of almost constant war between Israel and Hamas. Hundreds of thousands have crowded into an Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone” in central and southern Gaza that continues to be bombed, often living in rudimentary tent encampments where finding enough food and water can be a daily struggle.

An Israeli airstrike in a central Gaza refugee camp on Tuesday killed 10 Palestinians, including four people from the same family, and injured 11 others, according to Al-Awda Hospital.

The strike hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, where six people including three women were killed in an earlier airstrike.

The dead and wounded were taken to Al-Awda Hospital.

The Israeli strikes in Nuseirat and Bureij camps on Tuesday killed a total of 29 Palestinians, including 14 children and 6 women, hospital officials said.

The war was launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack but has drawn criticism from many countries for the extent of death, destruction and suffering in the Palestinian territory.

The U.S., Qatar and Egypt have been working for months for a cease-fire in Gaza, and the United States has blamed Hamas for refusing the latest deal.

This report contains information from the Associated Press.