All the hostages still held in Gaza are set to be released as soon as Monday under the first phase of a ceasefire plan agreed by Hamas and Israel, US President Donald Trump said late on Wednesday.
More than two years after Hamas and its allies kidnapped 251 people from Israel and took them to Gaza, 47 hostages remain in the enclave, with at least 20 believed to be alive. The remains of another hostage, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Hadar Goldin, have been held there since 2014, when he was killed and his body taken to the strip.
The Israeli government has said 26 of the 48 hostages are deceased, although the status of two others – Tamir Nimrodi and Bipin Joshi – remains uncertain. The government previously expressed “grave concern” over their fates.
The hostages who are believed to be alive are all men and all but one are in their 20s and 30s. Women, children and men over the age of 50 were released under previous ceasefire agreements.
One woman, Inbar Hayman, is among the 26 in Gaza who have been declared dead.
Of those still believed to be living or whose status is unknown, 11 were taken from the Nova music festival. Eight were kidnapped from several kibbutzim, or small communities, in southern Israel. Three are Israeli soldiers – two were kidnapped from military bases and one from a tank.
Here is what we know about them.
Families ripped apart
Twin brothers Ziv and Gali Berman were kidnapped from their home in kibbutz Kfar-Aza during the October 7 terror attack. They were 26 at the time. Speaking to CNN in February, their mother Liran Berman said other hostages who had been released had told the family the brothers were alive and separated from each other.
Several of the hostages were kidnapped alongside friends and family members, some of whom have since returned home.
Brothers Ariel and David Cunio were kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz, alongside Ariel’s partner Yehoud, David’s wife Sharon, and their three-year-old twin daughters, Yuli and Emma. Sharon, Yuli and Emma were released under a ceasefire agreement in November 2023, while Yehoud was freed earlier this year.
Eitan Horn was visiting his brother Iair when they were kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz. Iair was released earlier this year. A propaganda video showing him saying goodbye to Eitan was released by Hamas in March. The Horn family said that seeing him in the video “broke their hearts.”
“Since Iair returned to us, he hasn’t stopped thinking about and working for Eitan and all the other hostages he met in captivity who are still there,” the family said in a statement.
Matan Zangauker and his partner Illana Gritzewsky were kidnapped from the same kibbutz as the Horn brothers. Gritzewsky, a Mexican national, was released on November 30, 2023, as part of a short-lived hostage-and-ceasefire deal, while Zangauker was left behind.
Omri Miran, then 46, was kidnapped when Hamas gunmen broke into his family’s home in kibbutz Nahal Oz. In April 2024, Hamas put out a video showing Miran, alongside American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, who has since been released.
Music festival abductions
Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David are childhood best friends who were kidnapped together from the Nova Music Festival. In February 2025, Hamas filmed Gilboa-Dalal and David watching other hostages being released, posting the video to Telegram.
Gilboa-Dalal’s brother Gal told CNN this amounted to psychological torment. “To make them see what freedom might look like for them and then close the door and drag them back to hell – it’s awful,” he said.
Avinatan Or was also kidnapped from the Nova festival alongside his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, who was rescued in an IDF operation in central Gaza in June 2024. She revealed that they had been separated during the abduction.
Alon Ohel, Yosef-Chaim Ohana, Elkana Bohbot, Segev Kalfon, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Abraham Mor, Bar Kupershtein and Rom Braslavski were also kidnapped from the Nova festival.
Ohel, Ohana, Bohbot, Braslavski and Mor were all seen helping wounded victims at the site before their abduction.
Soldiers kidnapped on October 7
The IDF soldiers Nimrod Cohen, Matan Angrest and Tamir Nimrodi are among the youngest still held in Gaza.
Cohen appeared in a Hamas propaganda video posted online on March 1 this year. His family was able to identify him thanks to a tattoo on his arm, his mother Vicky Cohen told CNN. “We recognized Nimrod because of that tattoo. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recognize him because you couldn’t hear his voice or see his face,” she told CNN.
Foreign nationals
Bipin Joshi, a Nepali student, was working at a farm in kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel when he was kidnapped. His family said earlier this week that a previously unseen video showing him alive in captivity was recently recovered by the Israeli military in Gaza.
The video is believed to have been filmed in November 2023, just weeks after Joshi’s kidnapping. In a statement released by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the family said the video had given them “unwavering faith” that Joshi is alive.
Israeli officials had previously said there were “grave concerns” for Joshi.
Besides Joshi, three other foreign nationals are still held in Gaza, two of them from Thailand and one from Tanzania.
All three – Sonthaya Oakkharasri and Sudthisak Rinthalak, from Thailand, and Joshua Mollel, from Tanzania – have been declared dead by the Israeli government.
US citizens among the dead
The bodies of the 26 hostages who have been declared dead by the government are also set to be returned as part of the agreement announced on Wednesday.
However, three Israeli sources told CNN that Hamas may not know the location of, or may be unable to retrieve, the remains of some of them. According to one source, that is thought to be the case for between seven and nine of the deceased hostages, while another source put the figure at between 10 and 15.
Inbar Hayman was kidnapped from the Nova festival. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum announced in December 2023 that she had been killed by Hamas while in captivity. She remains the only female hostage still in Gaza.
At least 13 of the deceased hostages whose remains are still in Gaza were killed during the terror attacks on October 7, 2023 and their bodies then taken to the enclave.
They include several Israeli soldiers, including two who were dual US and Israeli citizens – Omer Maxim Neutra from Long Island, New York, and Itay Chen.
