Jerusalem, 12 October, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Ιsrael anxiously awaits the return of the 20 living hostages, as well as that of the 28 who lost their lives during their captivity. According to official statements, the living ones and also the remains that have been located are expected to be handed over tomorrow morning.
Who are they and what is their story. What have they and their families been through
MΑΤAN ANGREST, 22
Last June, Angrest’s family released a video showing Matan dragged out of tank at the Nahal Oz military base where he was serving on 7 October 2023.
Anat Angrest, his mother, told CNN that the video was the hardest thing to watch, but she decided to make it public, out of fear that Matan had been abandoned and forgotten by officials.
GALI AND ZIV BERMAN, 28
The twin brothers were abducted at Kfar Aza kibbutz.
Shortly after their older brother Liran Berman said that life will never be the same. “We had our lives before October 7 and now we don’t know what will happen in the future,” he said. “Even if my brothers are released, it will leave lifelong scars.”
ELKANA BOHBOT, 36
Bohbot was taken captive at the Nova music festival. As it was later revealed, he could have left but decided to stay behind to help those wounded during the attacks.
In May he was seen in a propaganda video published by the terrorists, in a terrible state , saying that the bombardment could cost him his life and he pleaded to be reunited with his wife and son.
ROM BRASLAVSKI, 21
Braslavski was also abducted while at Nova music festival, as a security guard. His family was later told he had saved a number of people before being kidnapped.
In April, he appeared in a propaganda video which sparked an international condemnation, as he was shown in bad health and in tears.
NIMROD COHEN, 20
Cohen, was a corporal in the Israeli army, guarding the area near the Nirim kibbutz when his unit was overrun by terrorists.
This week, as news emerged of the ceasefire deals, his father said it was the moment the family had been waiting for.
ARIEL CUNIO AND DAVI CUNIO, 28 and 38
The two brothers were kidnapped from Nir Oz kibbutz, with Ariel’s girlfriend Arbel Yehoud, who was released in January and David’s wife Sharon Aloni Cunio and three-year-old twin daughters, Ema and Yuly., who were released in November 2023.
Ariel and David’s father, Luis Cunio, wrote a piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz detailing how the family had been “living the unknown” for two years. His granddaughters “don’t understand why their father and uncle aren’t returning; they live the trauma every day”, he said.
EVYATAR DAVID, 24
David was abducted at the Nova music festival. In August his family expressed fears that Hamas was starving him after he was seen on video saying he had not eaten for days and had received barely any drinking water.
The footage prompted outrage across Israel. In a statement, the family accused Hamas of starving David for propaganda.
GUY GILBOA-DALAL, 24
Gilboa-Dalal was at the Nova festival, dancing with his brother in a grove of trees just a few miles from Gaza. Soon after, he was kidnapped by Hamas.
“It’s so hard missing him all day every day, thinking about him all day every day,” his brother, Gal Gilboa-Dalal, told the Guardian this week.
MAXIM HERKIN, 37
Herkin was at the Nova music festival when he was kidnapped. Unfortunate detail, the Russian-Israeli dual citizen had attended the event by chance after being invited by friends at the last minute.
Born in the Donbas region of Ukraine, he has a three-year-old daughter and was the primary provider for his mother and 11-year-old brother.
EITAN HORN, 38
Horn was kidnapped with his brother, Iair, from the latter’s home in Nir Oz kibbutz. Iair was released in February and told the Times of Israel in July that he had set aside his own recovery to focus on the release of his brother and the other hostages still in Gaza. “My life is frozen right now,” he said. “I live in a nightmare that every day they are kidnapping me anew.”
SEGEV KALFON, 27
HE was abducted as he was trying to flee the Nova festival. Earlier he had been on the phone with his family as the vehicle he was trapped in a traffic jam of people trying to flee the area.
A friend told the family that Hamas militants had approached the car and grabbed Segev, who at the time was studying finance at a Tel Aviv university. His family has spoken out about their worries about his health, particularly as he had been diagnosed with a severe form of anxiety and put on medication weeks before the 7 October attacks.
BAR KUPPERSTEIN, 23
He too was an abductee at at the Nova music festival, where he had been working as a bouncer and he too chose to stay behind to assist the injured.
“The only thing that keeps us going is the hope that Bar is alive and surviving,” his aunt Ora Rubinstein told Reuters at the time.
OMRI MIRAN, 48
Taken from his house in kibbutz Nahal Oz with his wife, Lishay Lavi, and their daughters, Roni and Alma. The militants forced one of their teenage neighbors to bang on the door of their safe room and it was made clear to them that the teenager and the family would be shot if they did not open up. The family did so and eventually Miran was tied up and led away.
“Roni was terrified, screaming. She tried to go with her daddy, I had to hold her back. I told Omri I love him and not to be a hero. I said do whatever they want because I want you back,” said Lavi.
EITAN MOR, 25
Mor was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival. A survivor later said he had spotted Mor and a friend bringing others to safety before he was kidnapped.
YOSEF-HAIM OHANA, 25
In February the family of Ohana said, without providing further details, that they had received a “clear” sign that he was alive, after being taken hostage at the Nova music festival.
At the time of his capture, he and a friend had been attempting to provide aid to injured partygoers. He was at the festival with friends to celebrate his imminent departure to the US to take a pilot course.
ALON OHEL, 24
Ohel was kidnapped at the Nova festival. In August, his mother wrote a piece for the Observer pleading for leaders around the world to do more to end the war and bring the hostages home. “My son and the other hostages, most of them young men, still have their whole lives ahead of them. I know that my son will play the piano again, filling the air with everything from Beethoven to Elton John to his own songs,” wrote Idit Ohel.
AVINATAN OR, 32
Or was kidnapped with his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, at the Nova music festival. Argamani was released after 245 days in captivity.
Recently she said: “Avinatan is someone words can’t describe. There’s this quiet strength in him that radiates peace. One of the sayings he loved was: ‘A lion doesn’t have to roar to let the other animals know he’s king.’ That’s exactly who he is – always present, even when silent.”
MATAN ZANGAUKER, 25
He was abducted with his partner, Ilana Gritzewsky, from their home in Nir Oz kibbutz. She was released in November 2023.
In a letter published this week, his mother, Einav Zangauker, said she was hoping to be able to hug her son soon. “For two years I’ve imagined how I will hold you close to my breast, the way a mother hugs her newborn child,” she wrote in Haaretz.
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