All the hostages still held in Gaza are set to be launched as quickly as Monday underneath the first part of a ceasefire plan agreed by Hamas and Israel, US President Donald Trump stated late on Wednesday.
More than two years after Hamas and its allies kidnapped 251 folks from Israel and took them to Gaza, 47 hostages stay in the enclave, with a minimum of 20 believed to be alive. The stays of one other hostage, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Hadar Goldin, have been held there since 2014, when he was killed and his physique taken to the strip.
The Israeli authorities has stated 26 of the 48 hostages are deceased, though the standing of two others – Tamir Nimrodi and Bipin Joshi – stays unsure. The authorities beforehand expressed “grave concern” over their fates.
The hostages who are believed to be alive are all males and all however one are in their 20s and 30s. Women, youngsters and males over the age of fifty had been released underneath earlier ceasefire agreements.
One lady, Inbar Hayman, is amongst the 26 in Gaza who’ve been declared lifeless.
Of these still believed to be dwelling or whose standing is unknown, 11 had been taken from the Nova music competition. Eight had been kidnapped from a number of kibbutzim, or small communities, in southern Israel, together with two foreigners who labored on Israeli farms. Three are Israeli troopers – two had been kidnapped from navy bases and one from a tank.
Here is what we learn about them.
Twin brothers Ziv and Gali Berman had been kidnapped from their house in kibbutz Kfar-Aza throughout the October 7 terror assault. They had been 26 at the time. Speaking to NCS in February, their mom Liran Berman stated different hostages who had been launched had informed the household the brothers had been alive and separated from one another.
Several of the hostages had been kidnapped alongside family and friends members, a few of whom have since returned house.
Brothers Ariel and David Cunio had been kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz, alongside Ariel’s associate Yehoud, David’s spouse Sharon, and their three-year-old twin daughters, Yuli and Emma. Sharon, Yuli and Emma had been launched underneath a ceasefire settlement in November 2023, whereas Yehoud was freed earlier this yr.
Eitan Horn was visiting his brother Iair after they had been kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz. Iair was launched earlier this yr. A propaganda video exhibiting him saying goodbye to Eitan was launched by Hamas in March. The Horn household stated that seeing him in the video “broke their hearts.”
“Since Iair returned to us, he hasn’t stopped thinking about and working for Eitan and all the other hostages he met in captivity who are still there,” the household stated in a press release.
Matan Zangauker and his associate Illana Gritzewsky had been kidnapped from the identical kibbutz as the Horn brothers. Gritzewsky, a Mexican nationwide, was launched on November 30, 2023, as a part of a short-lived hostage-and-ceasefire deal, whereas Zangauker was left behind.
Omri Miran, then 46, was kidnapped when Hamas gunmen broke into his household’s house in kibbutz Nahal Oz. In April 2024, Hamas put out a video exhibiting Miran, alongside American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, who has since been launched.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David are childhood greatest mates who had been kidnapped collectively from the Nova Music Festival. In February 2025, Hamas filmed Gilboa-Dalal and David watching different hostages being launched, posting the video to Telegram.
Gilboa-Dalal’s brother Gal informed NCS this amounted to psychological torment. “To make them see what freedom might look like for them and then close the door and drag them back to hell – it’s awful,” he stated.
Avinatan Or was additionally kidnapped from the Nova competition alongside his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, who was rescued in an IDF operation in central Gaza in June 2024. She revealed that that they had been separated throughout the abduction.
Alon Ohel, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Elkana Bohbot, Segev Kalfon, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Abraham Mor, Bar Kupershtein and Rom Braslavski had been additionally kidnapped from the Nova competition.
Ohel, Ohana, Bohbot, Braslavski and Mor had been all seen serving to wounded victims at the web site earlier than their abduction.
The IDF troopers Nimrod Cohen, Matan Angrest and Tamir Nimrodi are amongst the youngest still held in Gaza.
Cohen appeared in a Hamas propaganda video posted on-line on March 1 this yr. His household was capable of establish him due to a tattoo on his arm, his mom Vicky Cohen informed NCS. “We recognized Nimrod because of that tattoo. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recognize him because you couldn’t hear his voice or see his face,” she informed NCS.
Bipin Joshi, a Nepali pupil, was working at a farm in kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel when he was kidnapped. His household stated earlier this week {that a} beforehand unseen video exhibiting him alive in captivity was not too long ago recovered by the Israeli navy in Gaza.
The video is believed to have been filmed in November 2023, simply weeks after Joshi’s kidnapping. In a press release launched by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the household stated the video had given them “unwavering faith” that Joshi is alive.
Israeli officers had beforehand stated there have been “grave concerns” for Joshi.
Besides Joshi, 4 different overseas nationals are still held in Gaza, three of them from Thailand and one from Tanzania.
Three of the 4 – Sonthaya Oakkharasri and Sudthisak Rinthalak, from Thailand, and Joshua Mollel, from Tanzania – have been declared lifeless by the Israeli authorities. An unnamed Thai citizen is believed to be alive.
The our bodies of the 26 hostages who’ve been declared lifeless by the authorities are additionally set to be returned as a part of the settlement introduced on Wednesday.
However, three Israeli sources informed NCS that Hamas may not know the location of, or could also be unable to retrieve, the stays of a few of them. According to 1 supply, that’s regarded as the case for between seven and 9 of the deceased hostages, whereas one other supply put the determine at between 10 and 15.
Inbar Hayman was kidnapped from the Nova competition. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum introduced in December 2023 that she had been killed by Hamas whereas in captivity. She stays the solely feminine hostage still in Gaza.
At least 13 of the deceased hostages whose stays are still in Gaza had been killed throughout the terror assaults on October 7, 2023 and their our bodies then taken to the enclave.
They embrace a number of Israeli troopers, together with two who had been twin US and Israeli residents – Omer Maxim Neutra from Long Island, New York, and Itay Chen.