Israel: 136 hostages still held in Gaza
New exchange pursued with fighting restarted
JERUSALEM — A weeklong ceasefire that brought the exchanges of dozens of hostages held by Hamas for scores of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel gave way Friday morning to resumed fighting between Israel and Hamas. As mediators scuttle between the warring sides in a last-ditch effort to broker another swap, questions emerge on who remains in captivity in the besieged enclave.
Hamas and other terrorists seized around 247 hostages in their deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack on southern Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed.
Israel said on Friday that 136 hostages remain in Gaza. They include 119 men and 17 women and children, according to military spokesperson Daniel Hagari. Roughly 10 of the hostages are 75 and older, the prime minister’s office said Friday.
The majority are Israeli while 11 are foreign nationals: eight from Thailand, one from Nepal and Tanzania each, and one French-mexican.
Earlier, government spokesperson Eylon Levy listed the youngest hostage, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, his 4-year-old brother, Ariel, and their mother, Shiri, as still being among the hostages. The military has said it’s investigating a Hamas claim that the boys and their mother were killed in an Israeli airstrike.
As the cease-fire waned, the military said Friday that four hostages were reported to have died in captivity, including the oldest person held hostage.
All four — 56-year-old Maya Goren, 86-year-old Arye Zalmanovich, 54-year-old Ronan Engel, and 75-year-old Eliyahu Margalit
— were from Kibbutz Nir Oz. The kibbutz was devastated in the attack, with roughly a quarter of its people killed or kidnapped.
On Thursday, the military announced the death of Ofir Tzarfati, another Israeli believed to have been held hostage. Two other hostages have died in Hamas captivity since Oct. 7, according to the military.
Officials have said little about how the deaths were determined, but the army has said it has collected valuable information from the returned hostages.
During the cease-fire, some 110 hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza were returned to their families, Israel’s government said Friday.
They include 86 Israeli citizens and 24 foreign nationals, most of them Thais.
Families have greeted the return of their loved ones with joy and excitement, but doctors have warned of the psychological toll of captivity and say they face a long road to recovery.
There have been no in-depth stories of the hostages’ ordeal or captivity as the government has urged those released, their families and the media not to make public details of their time as prisoners to help ensure the safety of those still being held.