Most of them are men, dozens of women, about ten soldiers, and about forty bodies: what we know about the 120 hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip, according to a database compiled by Agence France-Presse.
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In addition to these 120 hostages, four Israelis kidnapped before October 7, 2023 also remain detained: Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayyid, two civilians presumed alive who entered Gaza voluntarily in 2014 and 2015, and the remains of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin. Soldiers killed during the 2014 war on Gaza.
112 released and 19 bodies returned
Of the 251 hostages and bodies taken into Gaza on October 7, the day of the Hamas attack on Israel, 120 are still being held by the Palestinian Islamic Movement and its allies, according to the latest data from the Israeli authorities.
So far, 112 hostages have been released: 105 of them during the truce that lasted for a week at the end of November, five before that and two at the beginning of February during an Israeli operation in Rafah (south). In detail, 33 minors, 49 adult women and 30 adult men were released, most of whom were Thai agricultural workers.
Israel was also able to return 19 bodies.
The Israeli authorities did not reveal the names of the hostages still being held, but Agence France-Presse identified them, thanks to its network of journalists, in regular contact with the families of the hostages, and with the Israeli press.
The results below are based on data collected by Agence France-Presse.
79 are presumed to be alive and 41 bodies remain in Gaza
As of June 4, 79 hostages remain alive and 41 bodies are being held in Gaza, including 25 people killed in the October 7 attack whose remains were transferred to the Palestinian territories.
Of the 79 hostages presumed to be alive, 72 are Israeli (including four Bedouins) or dual Israeli citizens, and seven are foreigners (six Thais and one Nepalese).
However, it is not certain that all of them are still alive. On Monday, Israel announced again the killing of four hostages, including three in their eighties. Their bodies are still being held in Gaza.
Hamas also announced several times the killing of hostages that were not confirmed by Israel, especially the killing of the youngest, infant Kfir, who would have turned one year old on January 18, his mother, Sherry Bibas (32 years old), and his eldest son. Son Ariel (four years old).
Except for Kfir and Ariel, there are no more minor hostages. The November agreement between Israel and Hamas stipulated their release as a priority.
11 soldiers, including five women
Conversely, not all women, who constitute the second priority in the agreement, have been released.
Among them is Sherry Bibas, whose fate remains uncertain, and 13 women believed to be alive are still detained in Gaza, ranging in age from 18 to 39 years old.
Five of the women, aged between 18 and 19, are soldiers and therefore were not affected by the hostage release agreement. There are also six male soldiers between the ages of 18 and 22. Most of them were doing their military service and were not professional soldiers. Hamas and its allies are also holding the bodies of eight soldiers and a police officer killed on October 7.
Including the soldiers, 66 adult men believed to be alive remain hostage.
Among them are fathers whose children and wives were released during the truce, such as David Cuneo, Tal Shoham, Youssef Al-Zayadneh, Ohad Yahalomi, and Ofer Calderon, the fathers of French-Israeli teenagers Eitan, Erez, and Sahar.
Many hostages from a rave party
Three seventy-year-olds and two octogenarians are still in captivity, including Oded (83 years old) and Avraham (78 years old), the husbands of Yocheved Lifshitz and Ruth Monder, who were released last October and November.
Of the living hostages still being held, at least 26 were kidnapped from the Nova Tribe music festival, which was attended by more than 3,000 people. Added to this are four bodies. Only five participants were released alive, including French-Israeli Mia Shem.
Residents or workers of ten kibbutzim are still among the hostages. First and foremost, Nir Oz, which still has 22 people presumed alive (38 of whom have been released) and 13 bodies in Gaza. Perry still mentions four bodies that are presumed to be alive, nine bodies in Gaza, and Kfar Azza, five that are presumed to be alive.
Missing person
In addition to the hostages, a woman named Bilha Inon is still missing, according to authorities.
The citizen, a resident of Netiv Hasara, a village near the Erez crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, was initially presumed to be dead, but her DNA was not found.
The two suspected hostages, Elyakim Levman and Dolev Yehud, were announced dead in Israel on October 7 after their remains were recently found.
