One of the key points in the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas starting this Sunday is the Israeli hostages held by the Islamist group since their abduction on the fateful October 7, 2023. Despite the ceasefire announcement, the fate of the 60 hostages presumed to be alive who have been in Gaza for over 15 months remains uncertain, as reported by Afp.
Qatar's Prime Minister, Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al Thani, and U.S. President, Joe Biden, provided details of the agreement, which in its first phase will allow the return of 33 living hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The remaining living hostages are to be released in a hypothetical second phase, and the bodies of the deceased hostages will be repatriated in a third phase, Biden stated.
On October 7, 2023, in the unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel, fighters from the Islamist movement took 251 people to Gaza, some already dead.
Of these, 117 were released, mainly women, children, and foreign workers, during the only ceasefire of this conflict, a week-long truce at the end of November 2023. Around 40 bodies were also repatriated.
As of January 15, the Israeli army estimated that 94 people were still in the hands of Hamas, but considered 34 of them deceased. Among the hostages presumed alive, 53 are Israeli (at least 22 with dual nationality), six are Thai, and one is Nepalese.
A man walks through Jerusalem in front of a sign with the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.
There are 48 men, ten women, and two children, brothers Kfir and Ariel, abducted at eight months and four years old along with their parents Shiri and Yarden Bibas. According to the army, the entire family is still alive. Additionally, ten of the captives are soldiers, five men and five women.
Since the end of the only ceasefire of this war on December 1, 2023, only seven hostages have been released in Israeli army operations. The latest was Kaid Farhan Alkadi, rescued on August 27 in southern Gaza.
It is not certain that the 60 hostages believed to be alive actually are.
Hamas and its allies from Islamic Jihad have regularly announced the deaths of hostages that Israel has not confirmed. One of these cases is that of the Bibas brothers and their mother.
Recently, the two Islamist groups provided video evidence of life for hostages Matan Zangauker (25), Edan Alexander (20), Sacha Trupanov (29), and Liri Albag (19).
Some of the deceased hostages were already dead when taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023, killed during the Hamas attack. This is the case, for example, of eleven soldiers.
At least another 30 hostages died in Gaza. Three of them—Yotam Haïm (28), Samer al-Talalqa (25), and Alon Lulu Shamriz (26)—were mistakenly shot by the Israeli army on December 15, 2023.
A man walks through Jerusalem in front of a sign with the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.
The Israeli army accuses Hamas of having executed six others at the end of August: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi, and Ori Danino, found by their soldiers in a Gaza tunnel with point-blank gunshot wounds.
Most of the hostages believed to be alive were kidnapped at the Tribe of Nova music festival (16) or at the Nir Oz kibbutz (20). The rave party, with over 3,000 participants, took place near the Reim kibbutz, not far from the Gaza Strip border.
In total, 370 people were killed at that location by the attackers, and at least 43 were kidnapped. Only nine have been released alive so far.
Nir Oz was the kibbutz to which most of the kidnapped belonged. It was the only place where there were more hostages (at least 74) than dead (over 40).
On October 7, 2023, entire families were taken to Gaza. For them, the November ceasefire brought a mix of relief for the released hostages and suffering for leaving some members behind.
This is especially the case for the French-Israeli teenagers Eitan Yahalomi, whose father Ohad remains captive, and the Kalderon brothers Erez and Sahar, also with their father Ofer still kidnapped.