After being extended at the last minute by a day the day before, the truce in Gaza ended at dawn on Friday, December 1, and fighting resumed. During these seven days when the bombings and rocket fire ceased thanks to an agreement concluded between Israel and Hamas, humanitarian convoys were able to be transported to the Gaza enclave.
At the same time, exchanges between Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners were carried out. Of the approximately 240 hostages taken to Gaza during the bloody Hamas attack on October 7, 105 were released, including 80 as part of the agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement, plus five people previously released. In detail, these include 33 minors, 49 adult women and 28 men, the latter being mainly Thai agricultural workers outside the truce agreement. But many hostages still remain captive of Hamas.
“136 hostages, including 17 women and children” are still being held, the Israeli army spokesperson said on Friday. Among these hostages, whose names the Israeli government is not revealing, are 125 Israelis or binationals, eight Thais, a Nepalese, a Tanzanian and a Franco-Mexican (Orion Hernandez-Radoux, 32, whose identity was confirmed by his family). The AFP, thanks to the Israeli press and its network of journalists in regular contact with hostage families, managed to identify, as of December 1, 108 presumed hostages still living in Gaza: mainly men, including fathers of children already released, soldiers and around fifteen women.
Representation by age and sex of 223 hostages identified by AFP, according to whether they are still in detention, released or deceased, as of December 1, 2023.
© / AFP
Fathers, soldiers and around fifteen women
However, it is not certain that all of them are still alive, specifies the press agency. Hamas has repeatedly announced hostage deaths, although they cannot be independently verified. This is particularly the case of the youngest of them, the infant Kfir (ten months), his mother Shiri Bibas (32 years old) and his big brother Ariel (four years old), whom the Israeli army did not not confirmed death. To date, the IDF has done so for seven hostages, including five on Friday. Furthermore, as proof of life is rare, it still regularly happens that victims, initially considered to be hostages, are ultimately identified as killed in the October 7 attack.
Apart from Kfir and Ariel, there are no more minor hostages left in the Gaza Strip. The last, the Bedouin Aïsha al-Zayadna (17 years old) was released on Thursday, the last day of the truce. The agreement between the two parties provided for their release as a priority. On the other hand, women, who were considered the second priority population, were not all able to reach Israel. Fifteen of them, adults, are still in the hands of Hamas, according to the Israeli army. Ofra Keidar and Judith Weinstein Haggai, both 70 years old, are the two oldest women still presumed hostages.
Five women, aged 18 or 19, are soldiers and were therefore not affected by the hostage release agreement. Added to this, according to AFP, are at least ten male soldiers aged 18 to 22. Most were doing their military service and were not career soldiers.
Ravagers and kibbutz
Including the soldiers, at least 91 adult men are still presumed hostages. Among them are many fathers, whose children and wives were released during the truce. Like David Cunio, Dror Or, Tal Shoham, Ilan Weiss, Yair Yakoov, Youssef al-Zayadna or even Ohad Yahalomi and Ofer Kalderon, the fathers of the Franco-Israeli teenagers Eitan, Erez and Sahar.
At least seven septuagenarians and four octogenarians are still presumed captive, including husbands of freed women: Abraham (78 years old), husband of Ruth Munder, Yoram (80), husband of Tamar Metzger, and Oded (83 years old) and Amiram (85 years old), the husbands of Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Kuper, released in October.
Of the hostages still held, at least 33 were kidnapped at the Tribe of Nova techno music festival, attended by more than 3,000 people. Only five ravers were released during the truce, including Franco-Israeli Mia Shem. Around ten kibbutzs still have hostages, first and foremost Nir Oz, which still has at least 27 captives (38 have been released). Beeri still deplores at least eleven hostages; Kfar Aza, six; Nir Yitzhak, four.
In addition to the hostages presumed alive, several bodies are also being held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas and its allies, including those of three Israeli soldiers killed on October 7. In addition to the hostages, seven people are still considered missing by the authorities. These are therefore either hostages or people found dead and whose bodies have not been identified.