Hamas released the last remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza on Monday, a key component of an agreement reached last week between Israel and the Palestinian group that mediators hope could lead to the end of the two-year war.
The release began on Monday morning when the first seven hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza. The Red Cross then brought them to the Israeli military, which transferred them back into Israel. Hours later, another 13 hostages were freed. According to the agreement, Israel will respond to the release of the hostages by releasing 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israel and another 1,700 Palestinians detained during the war, including women and children.
There were 48 Israeli hostages in Gaza, according to Israel, the last of about 250 people taken during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 others.
Hamas is required under the ceasefire to turn over the remains of deceased hostages, but it is unclear how quickly that will happen. Israel believes 26 hostages are dead, while the condition of two other captives has not been confirmed.
Here is a list of the living hostages and those whose circumstances are unknown. Their names and ages have been provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that advocates on behalf of the hostages and their loved ones.
Alon Ohel, 24, a pianist from northern Israel, was seized from a roadside bomb shelter after fleeing the Nova music festival, where more than 380 people were killed during the Hamas-led assault in southern Israel. The attack on the crowded shelter left him with shrapnel wounds in his right eye. After he appeared in a recent video released by Hamas, his family said it was clear he was now partially blind.
Ariel Cunio, 28, was kidnapped along with his partner, Arbel Yehud, from their home in Nir Oz, a rural community near the Gaza border that was ravaged in the Hamas assault.
“It was our private paradise,” Yehud, who was released in January, wrote in a Facebook post last month marking Cunio’s 700th day in captivity. Cunio’s brother, David Cunio, was also abducted from Nir Oz.
David Cunio, 35, was abducted along with his wife, Sharon Cunio, and their twin daughters, Yuli and Emma, then 3 years old. Sharon and the children were released in November 2023. In a video filmed in July, on their fifth birthday, the twins said their wish was for their father to return from Gaza. “It’s always the only wish,” Sharon said. “There’s nothing else.”
Avinatan Or, 32, was abducted alongside his partner, Noa Argamani, from the Nova music festival. Video footage showed gunmen dragging him across a field while Argamani, who was taken to Gaza on the back of a motorcycle, cried out in desperation.
Bar Kupershtein, 23, was taken from the Nova festival, where he was working as a security guard. He had stayed to help rescue others, according to relatives. In a recent interview published by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Kupershtein’s aunt, Ora Rubinstein, said she hoped that Trump would bring the hostages back so that the family could return to some normality.
Bipin Joshi, 24, a student from Nepal, arrived in Israel on a “Learn and Earn” programme less than a month before he was abducted from Kibbutz Alumim, a communal village near the Gaza border. The Israeli authorities said they were unable to determine his fate and feared for his life. On Wednesday, his family released footage of him from Gaza, filmed around November 2023, in which he appeared to be uninjured. His family said in a statement that the footage served as “a confirmation of our steadfast belief that he is alive”.
Eitan Horn, 38, was taken from Nir Oz with his older brother, Iair Horn, who was released in February. Appearing before an Israeli parliamentary committee last month, Iair Horn pleaded for a deal that would release the hostages and end the war. He described being held underground with his brother when a missile fell nearby. As they ran, the tunnel nearly collapsed on them, he said. When Eitan could not run anymore, Iair said he dragged him along in the direction their captors ordered them to go.
Eitan Mor, 25, was taken from the Nova festival, where he was working as a security guard. Witnesses said he worked to evacuate casualties during the assault. In a video filmed last year, his mother, Efrat Mor, said that sometime before the October 2023 attack, the subject of kidnapping had come up in conversation around their Sabbath table. She related that Mor had said at the time that should he ever be abducted, he would not want to be exchanged for Palestinians convicted of terrorism.
Elkana Bohbot, 36, was abducted from the Nova festival, where he was working in production and stayed to help others instead of escaping, according to his family. He had left his wife, Rivka Bohbot, and son, Reem, then 3, at home. Speaking at a rally for the hostages in Tel Aviv in February, Bohbot said her husband had “wanted a happy life for the family, to travel abroad and to bring up Reem with love”.
Evyatar David, 24, was captured from the Nova festival along with his friend Guy Gilboa-Dalal. David’s brother, Ilay David, described him as “shy but full of life” and said he had “the soul of a musician” and had played guitar since he was 10.
Nimrod Cohen was a 19-year-old conscript on guard duty with his tank crew near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, when his tank malfunctioned and he was taken alive into the enclave. The rest of the crew
was killed.
Gali and Ziv Berman are 28-year-old twin brothers who were abducted from Kfar Aza along with their friend and neighbour Emily Damari. Damari was released in January. She said after her release that Gali had run to her house on the morning of the attack because she was afraid to be alone. The twins were separated on their first day in Gaza, she said.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, was kidnapped from the Nova festival. He has appeared in at least two videos released by Hamas: one in February, which showed him and Evyatar David being forced to watch the release of other hostages, and one in September, which showed him alongside Alon Ohel.
Maxim Herkin, 37, immigrated to Israel from Ukraine and lived with his family in the northern town of Tirat Carmel before the attack. He was kidnapped from the Nova festival, which The Times of Israel reported he had decided to attend at the last minute.
Matan Angrest, 22, was a soldier in the Israeli Army and was taken captive from his tank during a battle with Hamas fighters near the Gaza border, according to Ron Krivoi, another hostage, who was released in November 2023. Since Angrest was taken, his mother, Anat Angrest, has been an activist for the release of the hostages and a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.
Matan Zangauker, 25, lived in Nir Oz with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky. They were both kidnapped on October 7, 2023, but Gritzewsky was released during a ceasefire that November. Zangauker’s mother, Einav, has been a fierce critic of the Israeli government since Zangauker’s capture. In a letter to Netanyahu, she told him: “I will personally haunt you if my Matan comes home in a body bag.”
Omri Miran, 48, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz by Hamas militants who left his wife, Lishay Miran-Lavi, and two small children, Roni, 5, and Alma, 2, behind.
Rom Braslavski, 21, was working as a security guard at the Nova festival when he was kidnapped, according to Haaretz newspaper. He was last seen in August in a video released by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that showed him looking emaciated and frail.
Segev Kalfon, 27, was kidnapped as he tried to escape the Nova festival. His family travelled to New York last year on a religious mission organised by Chabad Lubavitch, a Hasidic Jewish group based in Brooklyn, to pray at the gravesite of the Lubavitcher spiritual leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson.
Tamir Nimrodi, 20, is a soldier who was taken captive from a military base near Gaza during the October 2023 attack. He was taken along with two army friends whose remains were later returned to Israel for burial.
Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25, was helping injured people flee the Nova festival when he was captured by Hamas, according to Haaretz.
New York Times News Service