More than a year after Hamas attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023 – killing around 1,200 people and taking another 250 captive – around 80 hostages remain, although Israel believes around a third are dead.
A ceasefire deal currently in place promises the release of the hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian militants in Gaza.
The first stage of the ceasefire will last six weeks and see “a full and complete ceasefire” while 33 hostages in Gaza and up to 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in Israel are to be freed. The hostages released will include women, the elderly and the sick.
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said all but eight of the 33 were thought to be alive.
In the second stage, the remaining living hostages, including men, would be released in return for more Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas has said it will not release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal.
After the release of 18 of the hostages over the first three weeks, Hamas announced it would stop releasing hostages until further notice over what it claimed were Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.
A spokesman said Israel had delayed allowing displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, targeted Gazans with military shelling and gunfire and had stopped relief materials entering the territory. Both Israel and Hamas have previously accused the other of violating the truce .
In reply to the Hamas statement, Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said Hamas had violated the ceasefire agreement with its announcement and that he had instructed the military to prepare at the highest level of readiness in Gaza and to defend Israeli communities.
The first three hostages, Romi Gonen, 24, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Emily Damari, 28, were released on 19 January, alongside 90 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails. Four more hostages were released on 25 January – female Israeli soldiers Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag – in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners who were being kept in Israeli jails.
On 30 January, Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20, Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Moses, an 80-year-old man were released.
Ms Yehoud was believed to be the last remaining female civilian held hostage in Gaza. Another civilian woman, mother Shiri Bibas, remains in Gaza but the Israeli military has expressed grave concern for her life.
Israel refused to open the Netzarim corridor to northern Gaza on 25 January, as scheduled, after Hamas declined to include Ms Yehoud in that day’s swap. After US, Egyptian and Qatari mediation, it was agreed Ms Yehoud would be swapped a few days later, breaking the tradition of the exchanges taking place on the weekends. The corridor was then opened, allowing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return home to northern Gaza, though much of it has been destroyed.
On Friday 31 January, Hamas named Yarden Bibas, 35, Keith Siegel, 65, and Ofer Kalderon, 54 as the next Israelis to be released. They were released on Saturday, with Mr Bibas and Mr Kalderon handed to the Red Cross in southern Gaza and Mr Siegel released separately in Gaza City, to the north of the Strip.
Mr Bibas is the father of baby Kfir, only nine months old when he was kidnapped on 7 October, and Ariel, who was four at the time of the cross-border attack. He is the husband of Shiri Bibas.
Shiri, Ariel and Kfir remain unaccounted for amid “grave concerns” over their wellbeing from the Israeli military, with the release of Mr Bibas marking a painful moment for the large numbers of Israelis and other supporters around the world who have long campaigned for the whole Bibas family’s release.
On 8 February, three more Israelis were freed. Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, who was abducted that day from the Nova music festival, were led onto a Hamas podium by gunmen before being handed over to the Red Cross.
The three men appeared thin, weak and pale, in worse condition than the 18 other hostages already freed under the truce agreed in January after 15 months of war.
The Independent details who some of these remaining hostages are below.
Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov (28)
The 28-year-old was captured alongside three other members of his family from Kibbutz Nir Oz. His mother Lena, his partner Sapir Cohen and his grandmother Irina Tati were all released the month following Hamas’ 7 October attack.
David Cunio (34)
The 34-year-old is another of Ariel’s brothers and was also abducted from Nir Oz. His wife Sharon Aloni Cunio was released in November 2023, along with their twin daughters Ema and Yuly, three. Meanwhile, Sharon’s sister Daniele Aloni and her six-year-old daughter Emilia were also both freed then.
Gali and Ziv Berman (27)
The 27-year-old twins were abducted from Kfar Aza, with Ziv messaging a friend during Hamas’ attack. The brothers’ family said they had been told by the Israeli military that the pair are being held in Gaza.
Shlomo Mansour (86)
The Iraq-born 86-year-old was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kissufim. The chicken coop manager lived and worked there. Meanwhile, his wife Mazal managed to flee.
Daniela Gilboa (20)
The 20-year-old soldier was based at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. She was featured in a video published by Hamas in which she pleaded with the Israeli government to bring all the hostages home.
Matan Angrest (21)
The 21-year-old Israeli soldier was on duty on 7 October. It is assumed that he is still in Gaza.
Other hostages include:
Edan Alexander (20)
Matan Zanguaker (24)
Eitan Horn (38) and his brother Yair (46)
Oded Lifshitz (84)
Bipin Joshi (23)
Omer Neutra (22)
Itzik Elgarat (69)
Nimrod Cohen (20)
Tsachi Idan (50)
Omri Miran (47)
Ohad Yahalomi (50)
Tal Shoham (39)
Sagui Dekel-Chen (36)
A number of people were abducted from the Supernova music festival in southern Israel. Among them:
Omer Shem Tov (21)
Omer made a getaway in his car but was captured when he tried to rescue his friends, Maya and Itai Regev. All three were taken captive – the Regev siblings were released in November 2023.
Avinatan Or (31)
Avinatan was kidnapped along with his girlfriend, Noa Argamani. She was rescued from central Gaza in June, and revealed that they had been separated.
Rom Braslavski (20)
Rom was working on security for the festival. According to an account published by Hostages and Missing Families Forum, he was trying to rescue an injured person in the attack when he was caught in a volley of fire. He has not been heard from since.
Bar Kuperstein (23)
Bar‘s family say they identified him in a video of Israeli prisoners, posted by Hamas. Since then, they have had no further information.
Other Supernova abductees:
Yosef Ohana (24)
Guy Gilboa-Dalal (23)
Eitan Mor (24)
Alon Ohel (23)
Maxim Kharkin (36)
Segev Kalfon (26)
Eliya Cohen (27)
Elkana Bohbot (35)
Omer Wenkert (23)
Evyatar David (23)
Hostages believed dead
In November 2023, the bodies of 19-year-old soldier Noa Marciano and 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss were found by Israeli troops in buildings close to al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, according to the military.
The next month, the Israeli military said soldiers had mistakenly killed three hostages in northern Gaza who had escaped from captivity. They were named as Yotam Haim, 28, Samer Talalka, 22, and Alon Shamriz, 26. The military expressed “deep remorse”.
In August last year, the Israeli military announced that the bodies of Abraham Munder, Alex Dancyg, Yagev Buchshtab, Chaim Peri, Yoram Metzger and Nadav Popplewell had been found and returned to Israel. They said the six had died while held by Hamas.
Less than a month later, the Israeli military said troops had recovered the bodies of six hostages: Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sgt Ori Danino. The military said it believed Hamas had killed them shortly before soldiers reached them.
Earlier this year, the body of Yousef Zyadna, a 53-year-old Bedouin dairy farmer, was found by the Israeli military in an underground tunnel in the southern Rafah area. The military later said his son Hamza, 22, had been killed in Hamas captivity, after a forensic examination of remains. Yousef’s other children, Bilal, 19, and Aisha, 17 had also been abducted but were released in November 2023.
