Israeli hostages: Rescues, releases and ceasefire talks

Mediators gave Israel and Hamas

a final draft of a hostage release and Gaza ceasefire deal

on Jan 13, an official briefed on the negotiations said, after a “breakthrough” in talks attended by envoys of both US President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump.

All but four of the hostages were taken during the

Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023. 

Ninety-eight hostages remain in Gaza, according to the Israeli authorities. They include Israelis and foreigners, civilians and soldiers, men, women, two children and elderly. Around half of them are believed to be alive. Four, including two deceased soldiers, have been there since 2014.

Here are some of the main moments:

2023

Oct 7:

Hamas-led gunmen storm into southern Israel,

killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 Israeli and foreign hostages, by Israeli tallies.

Oct 20: Hamas releases two Israeli-American hostages. 

Oct 23: Hamas releases two elderly Israeli hostages.

Oct 30: Israeli forces rescue an Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped on Oct 7.

Nov 21:

Israel and Hamas announce a truce,

which will last seven days, to exchange hostages held in Gaza for Palestinians jailed in Israel, and let in more aid.

Around half the hostages – women, children and foreigners – are released in return for 240 Palestinian women and teenage prisoners and detainees, before war resumes on Dec 1.

Talks on a new ceasefire take place over the following months, but have yet to bear fruit. Israel says it wants only a temporary pause to free more hostages; Hamas says it will free them only as part of a permanent deal to end the war.

Dec 15: Israeli forces mistakenly kill three Israeli hostages in Gaza. The incident prompts some of the strongest criticism within Israel of the conduct of the war.

2024

Throughout the year, families of hostages lead a campaign to pressure Israel’s leaders to secure a deal for their loved ones’ release. They hold street protests, appear almost daily at Parliament, meet world leaders and are frequently interviewed in the media. 

Feb 12: The Israeli military says it frees two hostages during a raid by special forces in Gaza’s southern Rafah neighbourhood.

June 8: Israeli forces rescue four hostages held by Hamas in a raid on the centre of a residential neighbourhood in Nuseirat, Gaza, in one of the single deadliest Israeli assaults of the war.

Aug 27: Israeli special forces recover an Israeli hostage from a tunnel in southern Gaza in “a complex rescue operation”, the military says.

Aug 31: Israel discovers the bodies of six slain hostages in a Hamas tunnel in southern Gaza. Their deaths spark mass protests in Israel demanding the government enter a hostage deal with Hamas. The six were shot dead by their captors 48 to 72 hours before being found by Israeli forces, according to Health Ministry estimates.

Dec 2: Trump says there will be

“hell to pay” in the Middle East

if hostages held in the Gaza Strip are not released before his Jan 20 inauguration.

Trump will repeat that threat in coming weeks as talks in Cairo and Doha on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal gain momentum.

2025

Jan 8: The body of Youssef Ziyadne,

an Israeli Bedouin taken hostage on Oct 7, 2023

, along with evidence suggesting his son may also have been killed, has been found in a tunnel in Gaza, the Israeli military says. It later confirms the body of Ziyadne’s son Hamza was found alongside him.

Jan 9: US and Arab mediators have made some progress in their efforts to reach a ceasefire accord between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but not enough to seal a deal, Palestinian sources close to the talks in Qatar say. REUTERS