JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Palestinian militant group Hamas was set on Monday to release dozens of hostages it has been holding in Gaza for the last two years, in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian
Factbox-Who are the Israeli hostages released by Hamas?
Overview of Hostage Situation
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The 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.
Details of Released Hostages
In the days following the initial October 13 release, Hamas handed over the bodies of some of the deceased hostages it had been holding. Here are some details about the 20 living hostages released on Monday and hostages still in Gaza, all of them declared dead:
Hostages from Kibbutzim
NOVA HOSTAGES
Foreign Hostages and Deceased
Most of the living hostages released were abducted from the site of the Nova music festival near Kibbutz Reim in southern Israel.
Ongoing Recovery Efforts
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 were 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 two foreigners among the 16 remaining hostages in Gaza. Both of them, a Tanzanian student and a Thai worker, have been pronounced dead in absentia. The body of Nepalese student Bipin Joshi was handed over by Hamas on October 13 and the body of Thai national Sonthaya Oakkharasri was returned five days later.
DECEASED
All the 16 hostages still in Gaza were declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities, based on forensics and intelligence.
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' 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.
Hamas has indicated that recovering some of the bodies may take time, as not all burial sites are known. A special international task force is meant to help locate them all.
(Reporting by Pesha Magid and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Michael Perry and Louise Heavens)
