Who are the 33 hostages set to be released from captivity?
These are the names, faces and stories of the 33 hostages expected to be released. It is unclear how many of them are still alive.
The Sunday Times has maintained a database as to the fates of the 255 hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.
These are the names, faces and stories of the 33 hostages expected to be released. It is unclear how many of them are still alive.
Liri Albag, 19
Albag had worked as a surveillance soldier at Nahal Oz army base for three days before she was abducted on October 7. In January 2025, Hamas released a video of Liri believed to have been recorded near the time of release. Her mother Shira fainted when she saw her daughter’s face on the news.
“My Liri has always been self-confident, fearless, strong — I saw that she was extremely pale, that she has lost a ton of weight… I saw the black under her eyes, I saw that she hadn’t seen daylight in a long time,” Shira told Channel 13.
Karina Ariev, 20
Ariev, a surveillance soldier, was also taken captive early in the morning of October 7 when Hamas terrorists attacked the base at Nahal Oz, where she was stationed. She also appeared in footage released by Hamas in January.
In her last messages to her family on the day of her abduction, she told her sister to look after her parents, not wallow in sorrow for her, but to continue living.
Ohad Ben-Ami, 56
Ben-Ami is a dual Israeli-German citizen who was taken by Hamas in his underwear from kibbutz Be’eri along with his wife Raz. He is the accountant for the kibbutz and enjoys cycling. He was separated from his wife Raz while in captivity. She was released in the November 2023 truce, and has campaigned for his release since.
Agam Berger, 20
Berger is a surveillance soldier who was taken hostage with five other female soldiers from the Nahal Oz army base. She had only just started her military service when abducted.
She is a violinist and volunteers to support children with learning difficulties. Her family organised a concert where her favourite musicians played in Tel Aviv on her 20th birthday in August.
The Bibas family: Kfir Bibas, 2, Ariel Bibas, 5, Shiri Bibas, 33, Yarden Bibas, 34
Kfir, the youngest hostage, was kidnapped from Nir Oz with his mother, Shiri, his father, Yarden, and older brother Ariel.
In November 2023, Hamas said that the Bibas mother and sons were killed in an Israeli airstrike, but this has not been confirmed. The IDF said it was “making every effort” to discover their fate.
Hostages released in the first truce said that Yarden was being held separately from his wife and children, and that they saw him in a cage in a tunnel under Gaza.
On Friday, red-headed Kfir turned 2 years old, having spent the majority of his short life in captivity.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36
Dekel-Chen is one of the three captive Israeli-Americans believed to still be alive. When Hamas stormed their Kibbutz Nir Oz where Dekel-Chen lived with his pregnant wife and two daughters, he led them to the safe room, kissed them on their foreheads and locked the door, going out to join other men in the community in fighting off the militants.
When released, he will meet for the first time his third daughter, who celebrated her first birthday in December. She was named Shachar, Hebrew for the first light that comes after darkness.
Eliya Cohen, 27
Cohen was taken hostage from the music festival on October 7. He hid with his girlfriend Ziv underneath dead bodies until two vans of Hamas militants arrived and shot Cohen in the leg.
Ziv felt him being dragged away as she pretended to be dead. Ziv recounts their story in BBC Storyville’s documentary ‘We Will Dance Again’.
Cohen has epilepsy, but has not been visited by the Red Cross and provided medical assistance.
Emily Damari, 28
Damari is the only British-Israeli hostage believed to be alive. She was taken hostage by Hamas from Kibbutz Kfar Aza along with the Berman twins who came to her house when she texted them saying Hamas was nearing her door. She was shot during her abduction, and Hamas killed her golden cockapoo dog, Choocha.
Damari visited the UK regularly to visit her grandfather Sidney Moss in Beckenham. He died aged 97 while she was in captivity. Her mother, Mandy Damari, born in Surrey, has campaigned tirelessly for her release.
Itzik Elgarat, 69
Elgarat was abducted from his safe room in Kibbutz Nir Oz. He was shot during his abduction. In March 2024, Hamas said he was killed by an Israeli airstrike, but this has not been confirmed.
His brother Danny Elgarat was forcibly removed from the Israeli Knesset in July 2024 after interrupting the relative of another hostage who was speaking against the agreement of a hostage deal with Hamas.
Daniela Gilboa, 20
Gilboa was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz and was wounded in her leg during her abduction. She has appeared in multiple videos released by Hamas alongside other female hostages.
In one video, she said “I don’t know when or if I’ll ever return home. I’m under constant bombardment and gunfire 24 hours a day. I’m terrified for my life. At one point, your bombs nearly killed me”.
Along with her family, her boyfriend awaits her return. After receiving her parent’s blessing, he plans to propose to her upon her return.
Romi Gonen, 24
Gonen, a former Scouts counsellor from Kfar Vradim, was abducted from the Supernova music festival after being shot while on the phone to her mother.
Her family organised the “Paying it forward – Romi style” campaign on her 24th birthday. They asked people to perform good deeds in her honour.
Iair Horn, 46
Iair was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his brother Eitan Horn. They are Argentinian immigrants who moved to Israel a few years ago. They were said to still be “alive and well” by fellow hostages released during the temporary ceasefire in November 2023.
His brother Eitan, 38, is believed to still be alive in captivity, but is not included in the list of 33 hostages due to be released in the first stage of the ceasefire.
Iair organised all of the festivities at Kibbutz Nir Oz, as well as managing the local pub. During the pandemic, he made a pub on wheels, going house to house to give his neighbours drinks.
Tsachi Idan, 50
Idan was taken hostage from Kibbuts Nahal Oz. During the Hamas attack, his daughter Maayan was killed.
He was seen in a hostage video released by Hamas a year ago where he looked “gaunt, dishevelled, pale, but alive”, according to his cousin Adam Ma’anit, an Israeli living in the UK.
“It’s a very nerve-wracking moment for us because we still don’t know if Tsachi’s alive or dead,” said Ma’anit.
Ofer Kalderon, 53
Kalderon, a carpenter, was kidnapped along with his children, Sahar, 16, and Erez, 12 from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Sahar and Erez were both released as part of the temporary ceasefire deal in November 2023.
His cousin Eyal told The Times that “the hardest times lie in front of us still”.
“Just because his name is on that list, does not mean Hamas will act accordingly. The power is in their hands and there is nothing stopping them from doing whatever they want.”
Naama Levy, 20
Levy, a former student of diplomacy and chemistry and an avid tennis player, was in the early stages of her service for the IDF. She was among the six female surveillance soldiers kidnapped from Nahal Oz army base.
Footage of Levy in Gaza on October 7 then went viral. It showed her with multiple injuries and a large bloodstain on the seat of her gray sweatpants, leading to speculation that she had been sexually abused. This image has come to symbolise sexual violence against Israeli women during the attacks.
Or Levy, 34
Levy, a computer programmer from Givatayim, was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival. His wife, Eynav Elkayam Levy, 32, was confirmed dead at the scene.
His three-year-old son Almog is awaiting his return from captivity, and asks every day where his parents are.
Oded Lifshitz, 84
Lifshitz is a journalist who was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his wife Yocheved. They were ridden to Gaza on motorbikes driven by their Hamas captors. They are both peace activists who helped transport sick people out of Gaza to hospitals in Israel.
Yocheved, 86, was released in October 2023, when footage of her shaking hands with her captors and telling them ‘Shalom’ went viral.
Shlomo Mansour, 86
Mansour, the oldest hostage, was taken from his home in Kibbutz Kissufim, where he lived and worked as a chicken coop manager. His wife Mazal managed to escape.
Mansour, born in Iraq, was a survivor of the Farhud massacre, a pogrom in 1941 which led to the deaths of hundreds of Iraqi Jews.
His granddaughter, Yuval Mansour, 23, told The Sunday Times this week that the family does not know if Mansour will be released alive, describing the uncertainty as an “emotional storm”. She said her grandfather was her best source of advice, and she finds herself talking to him in her head.
Avera Mengistu, 38
Mengitsu, born in Ethiopia, is one of two hostages named on the list of those set to be released in the first stage of the ceasefire who were kidnapped before October 7.
His family said that Mengitsu suffered from mental health problems, and after being released from a psychiatric hospital, his condition worsened in 2014.
While unwell, he crossed the fence into Gaza, where he was captured by Hamas aged 27. His family have criticised the Israeli government for failing to negotiate his release during the more than ten years of his captivity, accusing them of racial bias.
Gadi Moses, 80
Moses was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with his extended family. His partner, Efrat, who was also taken that day, was later reported to have been killed by gunfire on the way into Gaza.
His stepdaughter Doron Katz-Asher and her two children Aviv and Raz, along with his ex-wife Margalit Moses, were released in November 2023. Moses was last seen alive in a video released by Hamas in December 2023.
Hisham al-Sayed, 36
Al-Sayed is one of two hostages named on the list of those set to be released in the first stage of the ceasefire who were kidnapped before October 7.
A Bedouin Arab Israeli civilian, al-Sayed has previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and wandered into Gaza during a period of mental distress aged 27 in 2015, where he was kidnapped by Hamas.
In 2022, Hamas released images of al-Sayed with an oxygen mask and an IV drip.
Keith Siegel, 65
Siegel, one of the three Israeli-American hostages believed to be alive, was kidnapped from his home in Kfar Aza along with his wife Aviva. They have four children and five grandchildren.
They were held together in tunnels underneath Gaza until her release in the November 2023 truce. She is amongst the most active of released hostages, relentlessly campaigning for her husband’s release.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, she said she last saw her husband lying on a mattress in the corner of a room looking at the ceiling, alone. He had attempted to hide his American nationality from his captors out of the fear that he would be released without his wife, who is from South Africa.
Eli Sharabi, 52
Sharabi, of Yemeni descent, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri with his brother Yosi. His wife and two daughters were later confirmed dead; their house had been set on fire.
Yosi is believed to have been killed in Gaza by an IDF airstrike, according to an IDF probe.
Omer Shem Tov, 22
Shem Tov was kidnapped from the Supernova music festival. While trying to escape the gunmen, he realised his two best friends, siblings Maya and Itai Regev, were not with him. He went back to find them, but when he did they were surrounded by Hamas and kidnapped together.
Maya and Itai were released in the November 2023 truce. Shem Tov, who has celiac disease, rations his servings of pita provided by his captors in order to recite a weekly prayer, according to released hostages who were held with him.
Tal Shoham, 39
Shoham, an Israeli-German, was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri along with his wife Adi, and their two children, Nave, 8, and Yahel, 3. His wife and children were released as part of the temporary ceasefire deal in November 2023.
In a poem written by his wife Adi, she explains how she imagines rescuing him and returning him home.
“If it was up to me, I would take the car. Turn right before the gate to Be’eri, go straight through Nakhbir and the wadi to Bureij. Across the dirty, dusty alleyways, down the dark, damp tunnels. All the way to you. Looking into your eyes and holding you tight.”
Doron Steinbrecher, 31
Steinbrecher, a veterinary nurse, was taken hostage from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Her mother Simona said she received a call from her daughter that day crying and asking for help. Footage released by Hamas last year showed her looking pale and thin.
In response, her mother Simona sent this message to her daughter: “I love you, Doron, I long to hold you again, me and the entire family. Be strong. We won’t stop fighting until you get out. Hold on just a little longer, you will soon be with us.”
Sasha (Alexander) Trufanov, 29
Troufanov, an engineer for Amazon, was kidnapped from Kibbitz Nir Oz along with his partner Sapir Cohen, his mother Elena and his grandmother Irena. They were all released in November, but Trofanov remains in captivity.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad released a video of Trofanov, an Israeli-Russian dual national, in May last year.
Omer Wenkert, 23
Wenkert, a restaurant manager from Gedera, was taken hostage from the Supernova music festival. His grandmother, Tsili Wenkert, 82, is a Holocaust survivor who was freed by the Russian Army on the way to Auschwitz.
Released hostage Liam Or was held with Wenkert in captivity, and said he would sing to keep up the spirits of other hostages. Wenkert suffers from colitis, and his family are concerned he will not have received the medication he needs.
Ohad Yahalomi, 50
Yahalomi, a French-Israeli citizen, was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz with his son Eitan, who was released in the November 2023 truce.
His wife, Bat-Sheva Yahalomi, and their two daughters, were also captured but managed to escape when they fell off the back of their captors motorbike on the way to Gaza.
Eitan, who was 12 when he was taken with his father, said upon his release that he was beaten and held in a cell.
Arbel Yehud, 29
Yehud was taken hostage by Hamas along with her boyfriend, Ariel Cunio, and his brother
David Cunio (whose wife and daughter were kidnapped and released in November 2023), from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Her family said she enjoyed taking long walks with her adopted puppy Murph. Her boyfriend Ariel is not on the list of hostages to be released in the first stage of the ceasefire deal.
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