JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Palestinian militant group Hamas has released the last surviving hostages it was holding in Gaza, in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners, under the terms of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Here are some details about the 20 living hostages released on Monday and 24 hostages still in Gaza, nearly all of them declared dead:
NOVA HOSTAGES
Most of the living hostages released were abducted from the site of the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel.
They include Evyatar David, 24, who was videoed by Hamas in August, looking skeletally thin and digging what he said in the video was his own grave; pianist Alon Ohel, 24, and Avinatan Or, 32. A video showing Or’s abduction with his girlfriend Noa Argamani pleading for her life and reaching desperately towards him as he was marched alongside her on foot circulated across the globe. Argamani was rescued in June. The couple reunited soon after Or’s release.
HOSTAGES TAKEN FROM KIBBUTZIM
Seven of the hostages were taken from their homes on kibbutzim, small communities near the Gaza border. They include twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 28, and brothers Ariel Cunio, 28, and David Cunio, 35, who was abducted with his wife Sharon and toddler daughters. Sharon and the girls were released in a brief November 2023 truce.
ISRAELI SOLDIERS
Matan Angrest, 22, and Nimrod Cohen, 20, are Israeli conscript soldiers who were seized by Hamas militants in the battles of October 7 and released on Monday.
FOREIGNERS
There are three foreigners among the 24 remaining hostages in Gaza. All three, a Tanzanian student and two Thai workers, have been pronounced dead in absentia. The body of Nepalese student Bipin Joshi was handed over by Hamas on Monday and identified on Tuesday.
DECEASED
Twenty-three hostages still in Gaza were formally declared dead by Israeli authorities, based on forensics and intelligence. The fate of one more hostage who was alive when he was seized, Tamir Nimrodi, remains undetermined. Israeli officials have said there is “grave concern” for his life.
Hamas has indicated that recovering the bodies may take time, as not all burial sites are known. A special international task force is meant to help locate them all.
One of the deceased is an Israeli soldier killed in a 2014 Israel-Hamas war. The remainder were all among the 251 hostages taken in Hamas’ deadly October 7, 2023, attack, which precipitated the war.
Some were already dead when taken, others were slain by the captors or killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza.
(Reporting by Pesha Magid and Maayan Lubell; Editing by David Holmes and Ros Russell)
