Six Israeli Hostages To Be Released From Gaza This Weekend

Four men held hostage in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and two others held for around 10 years are expected to be freed Saturday under the Israel-Hamas truce, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Since the entry into force of the January 19 ceasefire, 19 Israeli and dual national hostages have been freed, as have five Thai hostages released outside the accord.

Under the first phase of the accord 33 hostages, of whom eight have been announced as dead, are due to be exchanged by early March in return for the release of around 1,900 Palestinians detained by Israel.

As well as the six due for release on Saturday, the bodies of four dead captives are to be repatriated on Thursday.

The six scheduled to be freed on Saturday are:

– Eliya Cohen, 27 –

Originally from Tzur Hadassah near Jerusalem, Eliya Cohen, now 27, attended the Nova music festival with his fiancee, Ziv Aboud, who survived the October 7 attack.

Cohen worked in marketing and real estate, and was captured with three other young men as they hid in a shelter on the edge of the Gaza Strip.

Aboud said she had heard Cohen shout that he had been hit before he was abducted.

– Omer Shem Tov, 22 –

Omer Shem Tov, a computer programmer who turned 22 in captivity, was also at the Nova music festival along the border when Hamas attacked.

In regular contact with his parents, he “seemed to be more in a panic as the calls went on”, according to a video statement from his father Malki Shem Tov. They lost contact when he was taken to Gaza. A video posted by Hamas on Telegram confirmed he was in Gaza, his parents identifying him thanks to his tattoos.

Shem Tov, who is asthmatic, lived in Herzliya north of Tel Aviv before his capture.

– Tal Shoham, 40 –

The Israeli-Austrian dual national turned 40 in late January. He was kidnapped with his wife and extended family in Beeri kibbutz where they had been visiting relatives.

The software developer and volunteer first-aider is the only member of the family still held — six others were freed during the first truce in November 2023.

Three members of Shoham’s family died in the October 7, 2023 attack.

– Omer Wenkert, 23 –

The eldest of four children, Omer Wenkert, an Israeli-Argentinian who turned 23 in captivity, attended the Nova festival with his friend Kim Damati, who was killed in the attack.

Wenkert had worked as a restaurant manager and friends described him as “joyful with a contagious energy”, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

He suffers from a chronic illness, and the last proof he was alive was given by a hostage freed in the November 2023 truce.

Wenkert’s last message to his mother before being kidnapped was: “I am scared to death”.

– Hisham al-Sayed, 37 –

Hisham al-Sayed, a Bedouin of Israeli nationality with psycho-social disabilities, is believed to have been held in Gaza since he entered the territory of his own accord in 2015.

A hostage for nearly 10 years, he turned 37 on February 15.

He had been missing for a year when in April 2016 his photo appeared on Hamas television. Human Rights Watch then reported that he had been spotted by surveillance systems crossing into Gaza in April 2015.

Previously he lived with his family in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

His parents say he has schizophrenia and needs daily medication. Relatives said he also went missing in Jordan and Egypt several times before being handed over to the Israeli authorities. They also said he entered the Gaza Strip in 2010 and 2013 and was expelled by Hamas because of his mental state.

In June 2022, Hamas published a video on Telegram showing Sayed on a bed under an artificial respirator.

– Avraham Mengistu, 38 –

Avraham Mengistu, known by the nickname Avera, is an Israeli Jew of Ethiopian origin said by the authorities to suffer from mental disorders. He has been a hostage in Gaza for more than 10 years.

He was filmed by an Israeli security camera on September 7, 2014, sneaking into Gaza by climbing the barrier, shortly after a previous Israeli offensive.

His abduction, which initially went unnoticed, was announced by Israel in July 2015.

Born in Ethiopia, he arrived in Israel aged five in May 1991 with more than 14,000 people who were transferred from Ethiopia to Israel in 36 hours.

His family moved to Ashkelon, southern Israel, where he lived before his abduction.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)