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25-01-2025
GAZA STRIP: Hamas is expected to hand over to Israel the names of four hostages to be released on Saturday under the Gaza ceasefire deal.
It is thought they will be soldiers and civilians, all female.
They will be freed in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
It will be the second exchange since the ceasefire came into effect last Sunday. Three hostages and 90 prisoners were released in the first swap.
The ceasefire halted the war which began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.
More than 47,200 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel’s offensive, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
Hamas is also expected to provide information about the remaining 26 hostages due to be released over the next five weeks.
This includes the Bibas family, two parents and two children, one of whom, Kfir, was 10 months old when taken captive and is the youngest hostage. It is unclear if this information will include the names or just the number of living or dead hostages.
The prisoners who will be released are of a more serious category than those freed in the first exchange. They will include those who have killed, some of whom are serving sentences of more than 15 years.
Israel has insisted that no-one who was involved in the 7 October attacks will be freed.
The ceasefire deal was reached after months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, led by the US, Qatar and Egypt.
It will be implemented in three stages, with the second stage due to begin six weeks into the truce. About 1,900 Palestinian prisoners will be released during the first stage in exchange for 33 hostages. Israeli forces will also begin withdrawing from positions in Gaza and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians will be able to return to areas they had fled or been forced from.
The ceasefire is meant to lead to a permanent end to the war in Gaza.
Ninety-one hostages taken on 7 October 2023 are still held in Gaza. Fifty-seven of them are assumed by Israel to still be alive. Three others, two of whom are alive – have been held for a decade or more.
More than 15 months after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, a ceasefire agreement has come into effect, paving the way for a hostage release.
Hamas seized 251 people on 7 October 2023. On the first day of the ceasefire, 19 January 2025, three women were freed under the deal: Romi Gonen, 24, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Emily Damari, 28.
During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, a total of 33 hostages should be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israel.
According to Israel, 91 hostages are still unaccounted for, although only 57 are believed to be alive.
In addition, Hamas is still holding two men seized after crossing into Gaza from Israel before the war, Avera Mengistu, 27, an Ethiopian-Israeli dual national, and Hisham al-Sayed, 35, a Bedouin Arab, as well as the body of a soldier killed during a conflict in 2014.
These are the stories of those hostages who are still being held, which either have been confirmed by the media or credibly reported.
This list is updated and names may change, as some people feared kidnapped are confirmed to have been killed or released. 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. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
