Tortured, starved, but soon free: the hostages Israel believes are still alive
The remaining hostages in Gaza have suffered dreadful predations in their nearly 750 days in captivity. Now they are set for freedom.
Fathers, sons, brothers. The remaining hostages in Gaza, most of them young men, were living fulfilled lives with their wives, their children, their comrades-in-arms on October 7 2023 when they were brutally snatched from everything they held dear.
Two years on, after suffering for nearly 750 days in darkness, in the cold and suffocating heat, starved, abused and humiliated, they are set for freedom after Israel and Hamas signed an agreement for a ceasefire and their release.
Many of their fellow hostages have died and their bodies are still trapped under Gaza’s ruins. Their families will receive their bodies but not the joy of having them home alive.
These are the men Israel believes have survived despite their predations, who will, hopefully, be released together on Monday.
Evyatar David, 24
Evyatar David, who was taken from the Nova musical festival, shocked the world when Hamas released a video of him digging his own grave in August. The emaciated prisoner told how he was kept in a tunnel and fed irregularly by his captors.
“He was emaciated, skin and bones – pictures we’d seen only 80 years ago when the Holocaust was over,” his brother Ilay David told ABC America. “We know that the only thing that keeps Evyatar alive is his faith – and you can see it in his eyes.”
He described his brother as “a full of life person, he is the kindest soul.”
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was derided this week when she posted a picture of Evyatar on her Instagram page, mistaking him for a Palestinian prisoner being held by the Israelis.
Matan Angrest, 22
And IDF soldier, Matan was kidnapped from a burning tank at the Nahal Oz kibbutz on October 7, 2023.
Israeli TV reported this year that he was being held in a dark cellar with little air, and is suffering from untreated severe burns and bruises as well as harm to his eyes as a result of injuries he sustained during his kidnapping.
His mother Anat Angrest said this year through the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters: “My Matan, survive, hold on a little longer for me, for Dad, Adi, Ofir, and Roi, for an entire nation waiting for you.”
Gali and Ziv Berman, 28
Twins Gali and Ziv Berman were kidnapped from the Kfar Aza kibbutz, and turned 28 last month in captivity.
Their brother Liran said recently he had not received any confirmation they were alive but he believed they had survived their two years in captivity.
“They are alive, they’re strong, they’re surviving,” he said. “They’re survivors.”
“I want to say to them that I’m sorry that it’s taking this long,” he added.
When the hostage release deal was agreed, Liran said on social media:
“My Gali and Zivi, I love you so much. You’re coming back home.”
Elkana Bohbot, 36
Elkana Bohbot, a husband and dad of a five-year-old boy, was taken hostage at the Nova musical festival while he was trying to help the wounded during Hamas’s attack, according to the American Jewish Committee.
In June Hamas released a video of a gaunt and distressed Elkana apparently on the phone to his wife Rebecca, begging her not to forget him.
Rom Braslavski, 21
Rom Braslavski, a security guard at the Nova musical festival, stayed behind to help others when Hamas attacked the festival. He was kidnapped by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
“He could have run, but he did not. … He was a hero,” his aunt, Braslavski Benmenahem, told NBC.
PIJ released a distressing video of Rom in August, in which he appeared emaciated and tearfully begged for food and water, saying he was “on the verge of death”.
Nimrod Cohen, 21
Nimrod Cohen was a 19-year-old soldier when he was kidnapped.
His mother Viki Cohen, told the BBC recently: “It is a fragile situation and we don’t want to be disappointed again. And yet I feel hope that soon I will see Nimrod and I can hug [him] again.”
Nimrod’s brother Yotam said this week the family had been disappointed many times but now hoped they might see him again soon as the ceasefire deal was signed.
Ariel and David Cunio, 28 and 35
Brothers Ariel and David Cunio were kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz.
David was kidnapped with his wife, Sharon and their twin three-year-old daughters during the attack in which a quarter of the kibbutz’s population was murdered and kidnapped. Sharon and the girls were freed in November 23.
Ariel’s partner Arbel Yehoud was released in January 2025.
The brothers’ father Luis wrote in the Haaretz newspaper recently that his granddaughters “don’t understand why their father and uncle aren’t returning; they live the trauma every day”.
“To my sons, Ariel and David: Know that we aren’t giving up,” he wrote. “I hope we’ll see you soon, so hang on.”
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24.
Guy was at the Nova festival with his brother Gal when Guy was kidnapped.
Hamas published a propaganda video last month ahead of Israel’s ground offensive into Gaza City, in which Guy said he and eight others were being held in the city and would remain despite Israel’s attacks.
His brother Gal told The Guardian: “It’s so hard missing him all day every day, thinking about him all day every day. And as time goes by it’s getting harder and harder [to bear], and harder and harder to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Maxim Herkin, 37
Maxim Herkin is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen who moved to Israel from Ukraine, and was kidnapped from the Nova music festival.
Maxim has a three-year-old daughter, and was the primary provider for his mother and 11-year-old brother, according to Israeli media. He went to the music festival at the last minute, after being invited by friends.
In April, Hamas released a video that showed Maxim heavily bandaged. The militants claimed
he was in a tunnel allegedly targeted in an Israeli air strike.
Eitan Horn, 38
Eitan Horn is a well-loved youth leader who helped welcome newcomers to Israel, according to The Jerusalem Post.
On October 7, Eitan was visiting his brother Iair at his home on Nir Oz kibbutz when Hamas launched its attack. Both men were kidnapped, but Iair was freed in February. Hamas released a video of the brothers ahead of Iair’s release, in which Eitan appeared distraught.
Bipin Joshi, 24
Bipin Joshi, a Nepalese agriculture student who was in Israel to study, was kidnapped from the Alumin kibbutz, according to The Times of Israel.
“We just want him back,” his sister said in August, according to the newspaper. “It’s too much for me and my family.”
Segev Kalfon, 27
Segev Kalfon was working in a bakery and studying finance before he was taken hostage at the Nova music festival.
His family say he is a combat veteran who suffers from severe anxiety before he was kidnapped.
“Segev was kidnapped while suffering from post-trauma. He’s a combat veteran with PTSD and has an old orthopaedic injury,” his mother Galit said recently, noting that his condition had deteriorated in captivity.
Bar Abraham Kupershtein, 23
Bar Abraham Kupershtein was working as a guard and paramedic at the Nova festival when he was kidnapped. He had been financially supporting his mother, Julie, his father, Tal, and his four younger siblings, and took the job at the festival to make some money, The Times of Israel reports.
He was trying to save lives and evacuate injured people from the festival when he was taken hostage, his family told The Jerusalem Post.
Omri Miran, 48
Omri Miran was kidnapped from his home at the Nir Oz kibbutz.
Omri Miran’s family said they are desperate to reunite him with his wife, Lishay, and two young daughters, Roni and Alma.
“Roni just celebrated her fourth birthday – a second without her father,” his brother-in-law, Moshe Lavi, told NPR. “Alma is two years old – never celebrated a birthday with her father. He was kidnapped when she was six months old. I want to see him back with Lishay, my sister, with his father, Danny, and his siblings.”
Lishay said she regularly sends messages to her husband, called Notes to Omri. In one letter, she wrote that their daughter Roni “just said goodnight to you at the window like every night. She says you don’t hear her and she doesn’t see you … You’re really missing from her life and it’s getting harder for her to deal with your absence.”
Eitan Abraham Mor, 24
Eitan Abraham Mor was a security guard at the Nova festival who was last seen helping others get to safety before he was kidnapped.
Eitan’s father Tzvika told the Associated Press that a few months before the attack, his son had expressed opposition to the 2011 exchange that freed captive soldier Gilad Shalit for more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners.
“Eitan said he didn’t want there to be a situation where they would release him for murderers,” Mor said. “We know they will go back to murdering the same way they did after Gilad Shalit.”
Tamir Nimrodi, 20
Tamir was serving in serving in Israel’s COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration to the Gaza Strip, as an education corps NCO, when he was taken hostage from his base near the Erez Crossing on October 7.
Just 18 at the time, he was kidnapped barefoot and without his glasses, according to The Jerusalem Post.
“He always said I was his best friend. … I pray for the chance to have moments with him again,” said his mother, Herut Nimrodi. “The emptiness in my heart is indescribable.”
Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 24
Yosef-Chaim Ohana was at the Nova music festival with his friends to celebrate before he left for a pilot course in the United States, according to The Jerusalem Post. He was kidnapped as he and a friend attempted to provide aid to injured partygoers amid the onslaught. The Times of Israel reports that he was last seen trying to hide next to a car as a terrorist fired a rocket-propelled grenade at him and a friend.
Alon Ohel, 24
Alon Ohel was at the Nova music festival when he was taken hostage. Hamas published a propaganda video last month in which Alon could be seen briefly.
He had not been heard from until freed hostages Eli Sharabi and Or Levy said in March they were held with Ohel for the duration of their captivity.
“He has shrapnel in his eye, he has shrapnel in his shoulder, he has shrapnel in his arm. Alon was bound in chains, this entire time, and he had almost no food – at most one pita a day, over a very, very, very long time, more than a year,” his mother Idit Ohel told Channel 12.
Avinatan Or, 32
Avinatan Or and his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, were both kidnapped at the Nova music festival and immediately separated. A Hamas video of the kidnapping showed Noa being taken away on an all-terrain vehicle, crying, “Don’t kill me!” and reaching out her arms to Avinatan, who was being marched away by militants. Noa was freed last year.
Matan Zangauker, 25
Matan Zangauker was kidnapped with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky from their Kibbutz Nir Oz home. Ilana was freed in November 2023.
Hamas released a propaganda video showing Matan in December.
His mother, Einav, has been one of the most prominent voices calling for a hostage deal and has frequently held Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responsible for the murders of hostages in captivity.
Ilana told USA Today earlier this year that she couldn’t focus on healing while her boyfriend remained in captivity.
“My Matan, stay strong,” his mother wrote in a letter to her son published in Haaretz this week. “I will never give up on you.”
The bodies of 26 hostages who are confirmed dead remain in Gaza.
They are identified as: Itay Chen, Inbar Hayman, Arie Zalmanowicz, Lior Rudaeff, Eliyahu Margalit, Meny Godard, Amiram Cooper, Tamir Adar, Muhammad Al-Atarash, Sahar Baruch, Uriel Baruch, Ronen Engel, Hadar Goldin, Ran Gvili, Tal Haimi, Guy Illouz, Eitan Levi, Joshua Loitu Mollel, Omer Neutra, Dror Oz, Daniel Oz, Daniel Peretz, Yossi Sharabi, Asaf Hamami, Sonthaya Oakkharasri and Sudthisak Rinthalak.
More Coverage
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout