After 15 months of horror which has left more than 46,600 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis dead, Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza.
A total of 94 hostages remain unaccounted for, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of those who were taken.
According to Israel, 251 people were taken hostage by Hamas on 7 October 2023. More than 100 of them were freed in a brief cessation in fighting in the early weeks of the war.
Palestinians celebrate ceasefire between Hamas and Gaza (AP)
At least 35 hostages are believed to be dead, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Those killed include one Tanzanian national and two Thai nationals. At least three hostages were killed by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) during attacks on Gaza.
As part of the ceasefire deal, Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages, including all women, children, and men over 50 years old.
When will the hostages be released?
The Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and US President Joe Biden have outlined the plan for the ceasefire, which is set to take place over a number of weeks.
The first phase of the ceasefire will begin on January 19, lasting for six weeks. This includes a “full and complete” ceasefire, withdrawal of all Israeli forces from all the populated areas of Gaza and the release of a number of hostages, including women, elderly people and wounded people.
Relatives and friends of people killed and abducted by Hamas and taken into Gaza, react to the ceasefire announcement as they take part in a demonstration in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 (AP)
Women and those under the age of 19 will be released first, followed by men over 50. At least three hostages will be freed every week. Israel will then release Palestinian prisoners, and displaced Palestinians will be able to return to their homes. Israel will release 30 Palestinian detainees for every civilian hostage and 50 Palestinian detainees for every female Israeli soldier that Hamas releases.
Phase two is expected to see the release of the remaining hostages, including male soldiers, and will also mark the permanent ceasefire.
Phase three will involve the return of the remains of hostages who have been killed to their families, as well as the beginning of Gaza’s reconstruction.
Who are the hostages still in Gaza?
A young Tottenham Hotspur supporter. A teacher and her two toddlers. An abducted restaurant manager stripped to his underwear.
These are just some of the estimated 94 people being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza after being seized from a music festival and abducted from their homes when Hamas mounted its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
While some have been killed, rescued, or returned home in an exchange, many are still unaccounted for. It’s not known how many have died in captivity. Naturally, all of the loved ones of the missing have expressed concern for their health and survival over the intervening 15 months.
These are just some of the stories we know of those still missing.
The young Tottenham Hotspur supporter
Emily Damari, 28, is the only British hostage being held by Hamas in Gaza (Mandy Damari)
Emily Damari
Age: 28
Nationality: British
Emily Damari, 28, was taken by Hamas from her home in southern Israel on 7 October 2023. The gunman shot Damari in the leg, and killed her dog.
Her mother Mandy told the BBC last month she worried every second for her daughter, a passionate Tottenham Hotspur fan. “She’s suffering from gunshot wounds to her hand and her leg… I worry every day, I worry every second because in the next second, she could be murdered, just because she’s there.”
On Wednesday night, after news of the ceasefire deal, she shared photos of football fans at an Arsenal v Tottenham match who had brought messages of support for her daughter.
“You have come together to say ‘bring her home’. Thank you,” Mandy Damari wrote on X.
The frail 80-something loaded onto a motorbike
Sharone Lifschitz’s parents Oded and Yocheved (Sharone Lifschitz/PA) (PA Media)
Oded Lifschitz
Age: 84
Nationality: British-Israeli
Both the elderly parents of Sharone Lifschitz, 52, a London-based filmmaker and artist, were taken hostage by Hamas when the group stormed their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz in October 2023. Her 85-year-old mother, Yocheved, was released that month, but her father, Oded, is still missing.
The couple, who have been married for 64 years, were both lifelong peace activists who used to drive sick Palestinians from the Erez border crossing to appointments at Jerusalem hospitals at least once a week.
Her father had reportedly met the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and once fought a successful campaign in the Israeli courts to restore ancestral land to the Bedouin. “We had relationships with many people in Gaza, we were a community that wanted to work together,” Lifschitz, who grew up on the kibbutz before moving to London, told a press conference.
You have to be a special sort of person to take an 85-year-old person out of her bed. These are frail people
Sharone Lifschitz, the couple’s daughter
Lifschitz says she and her brother had recently gifted their father a new piano, but that the whole house was now destroyed and just “three centimetres tall”. “You have to be a special sort of person to take an 85-year-old out of her bed,” she said of her mother.
She said that another of the Nir Oz hostage victims was a friend’s daughter, who is autistic. “She is not well to be in a very acute situation, I want her out.”
The 26-year-old boyfriend of Noa Argamani
Avinatan Or, second left, and his partner, Noa Argamani, not pictured, are seized by members of the Hamas militant group (AP)
Avinatan Or
Age: 26 and unknown
Nationality: British-Israeli
A clip of Avinatan Or and his girlfriend Noa Argamani being abducted from the Nova music festival has become one of the most recognisable images of the October 7 attacks, after being widely shared on social media. It shows Argamani being bundled onto the back of a motorbike as she pleads for her life.
Argamani was rescued alongside three others in June 2024, but Or remains in Gaza. For the first three months after Avinatan was taken hostage, the family heard no news. “Then we got a call from the intelligence with an indication of life,” his mother Ditza, a British-Israeli citizen, told the Jewish Chronicle. “That’s what it’s called. And it means just that, that he’s alive.”
Since then, they have received two further updates. “The last one was in May, which means that since May, we don’t even know if he’s alive. We hope so.”
Of the moment she found out about the fate of her son, she said: “There are no words that can explain what a mother feels, what I felt at that moment. It’s like lightning striking, but from all directions at once. Then all the light inside of you disappears, and the darkness means no thoughts, no emotions, no air, nothing. Just nothing.”
The distraught teacher and her two toddlers
Ofri Bibas Levy, whose brother, Yarden Bibas, sister-in-law, Shiri Bibas, and their two children, Ariel, 4 years old, and Kfir, 10 months old, are held hostage in Gaza, speaks during a rally calling for their immediate release (Getty Images)
Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir
Ages: 32, four and nine months
Nationalities: Israeli
The Bibas’ story reads like many of those believed to have been captured from their homes on the kibbutz: their relatives last heard from them when they were hiding in a safe room as the militants invaded, then nothing since.
Shiri Bibas’ husband Yarden reportedly texted relatives “I love you all” as the militants fired semi-automatic weapons outside their window, writing “they’re coming in” 30 minutes later before communication went quiet.
The youngest child, baby Kfir, was the youngest hostage taken in the 7 October 2023 attacks. Shiri’s parents, who also lived on the kibbutz, were later found murdered.
On 19 February, the IDF presented the relatives of the Bibas family a video showing Shiri and the children while they were still alive several days after the abduction.
The military trainee taken in her pyjamas
Family of people taken hostage by Hamas in Israel on October 7 (left to right) Eli Albag, the father of 18-year-old Liri Albag; Ziv Abud, the girlfriend of 26-year-old Eliya Cohen; and Liran Berman, the brother of twins Ziv and Gali Berman. Picture date: Monday, January 22, 2024. (Yui Mok/PA) (PA Wire)
Liri Albag
Age: 19
Nationality: Israeli
Kidnapped in her pyjamas. This is what happened to 19-year-old military trainee Liri Albag in October 2023. She was taken hostage along with six other female conscript soldiers at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during Hamas’s attack. Five of them remain in captivity.
Earlier this month, Hamas posted a video showing Albag, as indirect talks between the group and Israel on a ceasefire and hostage release began. The footage shows Liri Albag calling for the Israeli government to reach a deal. Responding to the video, Albag’s parents said it had torn their hearts to pieces and they appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “make decisions as if your own children were there”.
Liri, 19, was in the military and had just started training as an army lookout near the Gaza border when Hamas invaded. Her father Eli told the Associated Press he recognised her in a video released by Hamas, crowded onto the back of a military truck seized by the gunmen.
“[She was taken] to Gaza,” her mother Shira said at a demonstration in October 2023. “And I want her back now. She was in the military, she was in the army base. She’s 18 years old, just a child. But she doesn’t want to fight. Nobody wants to fight. I believe also in Gaza they don’t want to fight. Nobody wants to fight. Everybody just wants to live.”
The abducted restaurant manager stripped to his underwear
Omer Wenkert
Age: 22
Nationality: Israeli
Omer Wenkert, a restaurant manager from the central Israeli town of Gedera, was at the Tribe of Nova music festival when he was believed to be abducted.
He called his family at about 6.30am on the Saturday he and many of his fellow party-goers were taken, telling relatives he could hear shooting and could not find a way out. He sent a text saying he felt scared and helpless just before 8am. Then he stopped responding to their messages.
That evening, Wenkert’s father was sent a copy of a Telegram video showing his son on the back of a white pickup truck, stripped down to his underwear with his hands tied behind his back as men in military uniform shoot into the air.
They are basically pointing a gun at Omer and beating him with several guns. You can see him trying to protect his head
Ricardo Grichner, Omer’s uncle
“The good news was that he was alive,” his uncle Ricardo Grichner has since told reporters. “There are no nice words to say what you can see in the movie. … They are basically pointing a gun at Omer and beating him with several guns. You can see him trying to protect his head.”
Analysis of the footage later confirmed that it was taken inside the Gaza Strip, just over three miles from the festival site.
A 21-year-old DJ who tried to escape by car
Omer Shem-Tov
Age: 21
Nationality: Israeli
Like Wenkert, Omer Shem-Tov — an Israeli DJ and regular festival-goer — was meant to be celebrating when he attended the Tribe of Nova music festival. Instead, the event quickly turned into a nightmare as he attempted to escape the attackers by car.
His father Malki Shem-Tov says he received multiple calls from his son between 6.30am and 9am on that Saturday morning, each one sounding “much more panicked”. “In one of the last calls, he said that people are shooting. He said … ‘I love you’,” says Malki.
“He told me that he’s starting to drive back. We asked him to send the live location,” his father continues.
I was trying to call him many times, to tell him he was going the wrong way. But he never answered
Malki Shem-Tov, Omer’s father
“When I saw the live location, I saw … it was moving toward the border of Gaza. I was trying to call him many times, to tell him that he was going the wrong way. But he never answered.”
As with Wenkert’s family, it was a video published by Hamas militants that confirmed to the family that Omer was alive but a hostage. Malki says he recognised Omer and his friend in the footage and that they were moving, but it was still “the most horrible day” of his family’s life.
“We are praying and waiting for Omer to come back.”
The father kidnapped with his children
(1/2)This is my friend Gaya Kalderon, desperately looking for any information about her family kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. Her father Ofer (53), grandmother Carmela(80, American citizen), cousin Noya(13), sister Sahar (16) and little brotherErez(11). pic.twitter.com/4ZNUDiWBTp
— Tamarulu (@TamaraSyrkin) October 13, 2023
Ofer Kalderon
Age: 54
Nationality: Israeli
Ofer Calderon, 54, was taken captive on October 7 with two of his children, when Hamas gunmen stormed Kibbutz Nir Oz, killing over 100 residents and taking around 80 hostages
Calderon, along with Erez, 12, and Sahar, 16, two of his four children, initially escaped from their shelter through the window into the fields of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where they were later taken hostage. Erez and Sahar were released on November 27 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel.
Upon news of the impending ceasefire deal this month, Eyal Calderon, Ofer’s cousin said in a voice note sent to the BBC: “We are hoping that the deal will be closed soon and we will reach the moment that we are hugging Ofer, that his four children are hugging him.”
“We want this deal to include all the hostages, all the 98 hostages. We are demanding that. We are just hoping to see all of them in Israeli [territory].”