As the fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is under threat of collapse, the fate of hostages who were to be released under the first stage of the deal’s terms has become ever more precarious.
Both Israel and Hamas have accused each other of violating terms of the first stage of the cease-fire agreement, now in its fourth week, and it remained uncertain whether the next exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners would proceed on Saturday as planned.
On Monday, Hamas said it was indefinitely delaying the release of more hostages. That prompted President Trump to warn that “all hell is going to break out” if they were not released by noon Saturday — a threat echoed on Tuesday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, who said “intense fighting” would resume in Gaza if the hostages were not freed by then.
Relatives of the hostages are determined not to let them get lost in the swirl of negotiations and confusion over whether the cease-fire agreement would survive into a second phase, especially after the most recently released hostages appeared to be emaciated when they were freed.
“There is probably not enough understanding of how serious the situation is,” Hanna Mastronov, the aunt of the hostage Yosef Haim Ohana, told Ynet, a centrist Israeli news outlet, on Wednesday. She said the family had recently received “a clear indication” that he was still alive.
How many hostages are still in Gaza?
When the cease-fire deal was reached in January, about 100 hostages, some dead, were thought to be still held in Gaza. Most of them are Israeli, although some hold dual citizenships. There is also a hostage from Nepal, three from Thailand, two of whom are believed to be dead, and one from Tanzania who is also presumed dead.
During the initial six-week phase of the deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages — women and children, men over 50, and sick or wounded people. At least eight of these hostages are dead, according to Israel.
In exchange, Israel agreed to release more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were jailed before the war and are accused of violence against Israeli soldiers and civilians. But many Palestinian prisoners are detained indefinitely without charges and based on secret evidence, under what is called administrative detention.
The releases have been staggered, with 16 hostages let go by Hamas over the first five exchanges, and busloads of Palestinian prisoners released by Israel. (Five Thai nationals have also been released under a separate arrangement.)
Seventeen Israeli hostages are still awaiting release under the terms of the first stage of the cease-fire deal, according to data provided on Wednesday by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Most of the hostages were seized in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken captive, mostly civilians, according to the Israeli authorities. That attack prompted the war in Gaza that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, whose count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
How many American hostages are left?
Six American citizens remain captive, according to the American Jewish Committee.
Itay Chen, a 19-year-old soldier; Omer Neutra, a 21-year-old tank commander from Long Island, N.Y.; Judith Weinstein, 70, who grew up in Toronto; and her husband, Gadi Haggai, 73, are presumed dead by Israel, which says Hamas continues to hold their bodies as bargaining chips for future swaps.
One American, Edan Alexander, was seen in a video released by Hamas in November.
How do the releases work?
Palestinian prisoners have been released every seven days in exchange for hostages, according to the plan. The family of one, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said in a social media post on Wednesday that they believed he could be freed in the upcoming exchanges.
The Israeli authorities have established three reception points to receive the hostages along the border with Gaza that are staffed with Israeli soldiers, doctors and psychologists, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with protocol. In the two most recent releases, Hamas has staged humiliating ceremonies with the hostages, forcing some to thank the militant group for their treatment while being held.
In each exchange so far, once Hamas has handed over the hostages to workers from the Red Cross, Israel has released dozens of Palestinian prisoners, their numbers decided by a hostage-for-prisoner ratio determined during the cease-fire deal.
Many of the released Palestinians had been in prison for decades. They were welcomed by jubilant crowds in Ramallah and the West Bank. Some were released into exile in neighboring countries, such as Egypt.
According to the agreement, the release of a living female hostage or civilian under 18 requires the release of 30 Palestinian female or minor prisoners.
Each living male Israeli civilian who is 50 or older is being swapped for 30 Palestinian prisoners. A living female Israeli soldier requires the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners.
A total of 110 Palestinian prisoners are to be released in exchange for nine male Israeli civilians who are wounded or sick.
During the sixth and final week of the cease-fire deal — if it holds — Israel is to release 47 prisoners who were rearrested after being freed in a 2011 deal in which more than 1,000 Palestinians were freed in exchange for a captive Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.
Israel is also set to release about 1,000 Gazans detained during the war on the condition that they did not participate in the October attack.
How many hostages were let go before this cease-fire?
Some 105 hostages — mostly women and children — were freed in November 2023 during a weeklong truce. In exchange, Israel released 240 Palestinian female and teenage prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Early in the war, Hamas released four hostages — two Israeli-American women and two Israeli women. Israel has also freed eight hostages in military operations, at least one of which was accompanied by devastating bombing and high Palestinian casualties.
The bodies of more than 35 other hostages were brought back to Israel in various operations over the course of the war, according to the Israeli government. Several hostages had been killed by Israeli forces, accidentally shot in Gaza or killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes. The military said some civilian hostages might have been killed by the Israeli military as they were being kidnapped and taken into Gaza.
The post What We Know About the Hostages Still in Gaza appeared first on New York Times.
