Ceasefire in Gaza: still alive, announced dead… the uncertain fate of the last Hamas hostages

While a truce agreement was reached on Wednesday between Israel and Hamas, the fate of the 60 hostages presumed alive, captive for more than 15 months in the Gaza Strip, is uncertain, overshadowed by the litany of confirmed deaths and bodies. repatriated.

The Qatari Prime Minister, Mohammed bin Abdelrahmane Al-Thani, and the American President, Joe Biden, detailed the agreement, which provides in a first phase a ceasefire allowing the release of living hostages, 33 according to li, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The other living hostages must be released in a hypothetical second phase, before the repatriation of the remains of the dead hostages in a third phase, Joe Biden said.

48 men, 10 women and 2 children

On October 7, 2023, during an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel, the commandos of the Palestinian Islamist movement took 251 people and remains to Gaza. Of this total, 117 people, mainly women, children and foreign workers, regained their freedom, mainly during the only truce in the conflict, which lasted one week at the end of November 2023.

Among the hostages still believed to be alive, 53 are Israelis, including at least 22 dual nationals, six are Thai and one Nepalese. Among them, 48 are men and 10 women, including five soldiers. Adding the men, ten soldiers presumed alive are still captive. Two children, brothers Kfir and Ariel, kidnapped at eight months and four years respectively, remain presumed alive, as do their parents, Shiri and Yarden Bibas.

Only seven hostages released since the last truce

Since the end of the truce on December 1, 2023, only seven hostages have found freedom, during rescue operations by the Israeli army. The latest is Kaid Farhan Alkadi, released on August 27 in the south of the Gaza Strip.

In the absence of proof of life, it is not certain that all the 60 hostages presumed alive are still alive. Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have regularly announced hostage deaths, which Israel has not confirmed, notably those of the Bibas children and their mother. Among the rare proof of life, videos recently published by Hamas and Islamic Jihad of the hostages Matan Zangauker (25 years old), Edan Alexander (20 years old), Sacha Trupanov (29 years old) and Liri Albag (19 years old).

Some of the deceased hostages were already dead when they were taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023, killed during the Hamas attack. This is particularly the case for 11 soldiers. At least 30 other hostages captured alive have died in Gaza. Three of them – Yotam Haïm (28 years old), Samer al-Talalqa (25 years old) and Alon Lulu Shamriz (26 years old) – were shot dead by mistake by the Israeli army on December 15, 2023.

Two French people still in Gaza

The Israeli army accuses Hamas of having coldly executed six at the end of August: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino, found dead by soldiers in a Rafah tunnel, in southern Gaza Strip.

Most of the presumed hostages still alive in Gaza were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz (20) or the Nova music festival (16). Nir Oz was already the kibbutz with the most hostages on October 7, 2023. It was the only community with more hostages (76) than deaths (more than 40), including foreign workers.

The Nova rave party, attended by more than 3,000 people, was held between kibbutz Réïm and Beeri, on the edge of the Gaza Strip. In total, at least 370 people were massacred and 43 kidnapped, of whom only nine have returned alive to date.

On October 7, 2023, entire families were taken to Gaza. For the hostages released among them, the truce of November 2023 mixed relief and the heartbreak of leaving relatives behind. This is particularly the case of the Franco-Israeli teenagers from Nir Oz, Eitan Yahalomi, whose father Ohad is still captive, and Erez and Sahar Kalderon, whose father Ofer remains held hostage in Gaza.