His death was announced one year to the day after his kidnapping at the Nova music festival during the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on southern Israel: Idan Shtivi, a 28-year-old Israeli hostage, died, announced this Monday October 7 The Families Forum. “The Hostage Families Forum mourns the murder of Idan Shtivi” whose “body is still” in Gaza, the Forum wrote in a statement, as Israel commemorates the first anniversary of the deadliest day in its history .
After a year of captivity in the Gaza Strip, the fate of the 63 hostages presumed alive, Hamas’ main bargaining chip to obtain a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners, is uncertain. On October 7, 2023, during Hamas’ unprecedented attack on southern Israel, commandos of the Palestinian Islamist movement took 251 people or captured remains to Gaza. Of this total, 117 people, mainly women, children and foreign workers, regained their freedom, mainly during the only truce in the conflict, which lasted a week at the end of November.
As of October 7, 2024, 96 people are still held captive there, including 63 presumed alive, 33 having been declared dead by the Israeli army, and one by the Families Forum. Among the hostages still believed to be alive, 56 are Israelis, including at least 20 dual nationals, six are Thai and one is Nepalese. Among them, 51 are men and 10 women, including five soldiers. A total of eleven soldiers remain captive. Two children, brothers Kfir and Ariel Bibas, kidnapped at eight months and four years respectively, remain presumed alive, as well as their parents Shiri and Yarden Bibas.
Seven hostages found free
Since the end of the truce on December 1, 2023, only seven other hostages have found freedom, during rescue operations by the Israeli army. The latest is Kaid Farhan Alkadi, released on August 27 in the south of the Gaza Strip. In the absence of proof of life, it is not certain that the 63 hostages presumed alive are still alive. Hamas announced on August 12 that its fighters had “killed a hostage” and “injured two female hostages” in “incidents”, without naming them. Previously, the movement had announced several times the deaths of hostages, which Israel has not confirmed, notably those of Kfir Bibas (now one year old), his older brother Ariel (five years old), and their mother.
Some of the deceased hostages were already dead when they were taken to Gaza on October 7, 2023, killed during the Hamas attack. This is particularly the case for ten soldiers. At least 28 other hostages captured alive have died in Gaza. Three of them – Yotam Haïm (28 years old), Samer al-Talalqa (25 years old) and Alon Lulu Shamriz (26 years old) – were shot dead by mistake by the Israeli army on December 15, 2023.
The Israeli army accuses Hamas of having coldly executed six others at the end of August 2024: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino, found dead by soldiers in a Rafah tunnel, south of the Gaza Strip. Most of the suspected hostages still alive in Gaza were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz or the Nova music festival.
Nir Oz is the kibbutz with the most hostages. It was the only community to record more (more than 70) than deaths (more than 40), including foreign workers. The Nova rave party, attended by more than 3,000 people, was held between kibbutz Réïm and Beeri, on the edge of the Gaza Strip. In total, at least 370 people were massacred and 43 kidnapped, of whom only nine have returned alive to date.
Two Franco-Israelis still hostages
On October 7, entire families were taken to Gaza. For the hostages released among them, the truce of November 2023 mixed relief and the heartbreak of leaving relatives behind. This is particularly the case of the Franco-Israeli teenagers from Nir Oz, Eitan Yahalomi, hostage in Gaza for 52 days, whose father Ohad, a 50-year-old Franco-Israeli, is still captive, and Erez and Sahar Kalderon, whose Father Ofer, a 53-year-old Franco-Israeli, remains held hostage in Gaza. Ohad Yahalomi, an employee of the Parks and Nature Authority “loves family and nature”, according to his wife Bat-Sheva Yahalomi, received this Monday, October 7 by Emmanuel Macron in Paris.
The last time she saw her husband, Ohad Yahalomi had just been shot and wounded by Hamas commandos on October 7, 2023. “I didn’t say goodbye to him. I understood well after the attack that he had been kidnapped in Gaza, the army was only able to confirm this to us in November,” he said. near The Cross Batsheva Yahalomi, in front of their ghost house on Kibbutz Nir Oz.