Gaza war hostage crisis

Overview

The Gaza war hostage crisis began with the October 7 attacks on southern Israel in 2023. Hamas, a terrorist organization, and its accomplices killed about 1,200 people and abducted 251 into Gaza. The captives included children, other civilians and soldiers. Some were seized from family homes, others from roads and the Nova music festival; attackers also took the bodies of people they had killed. Their captivity became a central issue in the Gaza war (2023–present), shaping Israel’s military operations, negotiations with Hamas and the efforts of families who demanded the return of every captive. Israel’s objective encompassed those believed to be alive and the remains of those murdered in captivity or on October 7.^[1][3][17]

The crisis unfolded through several forms of recovery. Temporary pauses and negotiated exchanges brought groups of hostages home in November 2023 and again in 2025. Israeli forces rescued captives in operations supported by intelligence, while searches in Gaza recovered the bodies of murdered hostages. The United States, Qatar and Egypt mediated proposals that connected releases with pauses in fighting and other terms. Families kept the captives visible through public rallies, portraits and meetings with officials. The last 20 living hostages returned on October 13, 2025. Israel continued seeking the dead until its forces recovered the remains of police officer Ran Gvili, the last October 7 hostage still in Gaza, on January 26, 2026.^{[5][11][15][17]}

Background

Hamas-led attackers crossed into Israel on October 7 and assaulted communities near Gaza as well as the Nova music festival. The abductions were part of a wider attack on civilians and military positions. At Kibbutz Be’eri, attackers took members of several generations of one family and abducted 30 people from the community, with two additional captives taken nearby. Children were also seized from Be’eri and Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Emily Hand and Hila Rotem Shoshani spent 50 days in captivity before their release in November. Members of the Goldstein-Almog family, including children, were held for 51 days. These cases made clear from the first hours that the captives were not confined to soldiers or military sites.^[3][4]

At Kibbutz Nir Oz, Yaron Maor fought attackers from his home for about an hour and a half while his wife and daughters sheltered. After escaping with them, he helped evacuate other families until late that night. At Nova, Hamas abducted Omer Wenkert after he told his parents he was terrified; contact ended at 7:50 a.m. Hamas also abducted Or Levy and murdered his wife Einav, leaving their three-year-old son with his grandparents. Avinatan Or and Eitan Mor were taken from the festival. Romi Gonen was shot in the hand as she fled and then abducted. Such accounts placed individual families at the center of a crisis that immediately extended beyond the battlefield.^[3][18][19]

Israel faced two linked tasks: protect people still within reach of rescuers and locate those already taken into Gaza. During the October 7 battles, Shayetet 13 commandos rescued about 250 people held by attackers near Gaza. Once captives had been moved across the border, recovery required intelligence, military operations or negotiation with their captors. Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades held hostages in tunnel networks, including beneath Rafah and southern Gaza. Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades also held Israeli women and children. Separate armed groups therefore participated in captivity and in some later handovers.^[3][7][9]

Course of the war

Diplomatic contacts began within days of the attack. By October 9, Qatar was leading discussions about an exchange. Its access to Hamas’s leadership, including Ismail Haniyeh, made it a principal channel to the captors. U.S. President Joe Biden publicly expressed hope on October 11 that the hostages could be rescued. During his October visit to Israel, he met families of hostages and missing people. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also met Americans and Israelis whose relatives had been abducted. On October 22, leaders of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom expressed support for Israel and concern for hostages and civilians. Those statements accompanied diplomatic efforts and Israel’s military campaign against Hamas.^[1][3]

The first large negotiated release took place during a temporary pause in November 2023. Hamas released groups of captives in stages as Israel released prisoners under the arrangement. In all, 105 civilians were freed from Gaza during the pause, including 81 Israelis, 23 Thai nationals and one Filipino. The return of Emily Hand and Hila Rotem Shoshani after 50 days drew attention to the children’s ordeal; Hila was initially released without her mother. Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades and Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades appeared together at some handovers in Gaza, where armed operatives presented captives before crowds. The pause ended with many hostages still held.^[4][5]

Negotiations continued in 2024. The United States, Qatar and Egypt developed a proposal linking the release of remaining hostages to a humanitarian pause and a possible extension. Hamas sent its response before Blinken met Israel’s government on February 7. Blinken identified terms that could not be accepted while maintaining that further negotiation was possible. The dispute reflected Israel’s insistence on bringing the hostages home while retaining its objective of dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described defeating Hamas, returning the hostages and facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza as priorities in April 2024. A pause could enable releases and aid delivery, but its terms remained inseparable from the captives’ fate and the future of Hamas’s rule in Gaza.^[1][6]

Rescue operations formed another part of the effort. In February 2024, the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet and an Israel Police special unit rescued Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Har from Rafah. The operation used intelligence gathered before troops entered the building where they were held. On June 8, Israeli forces rescued Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv from separate locations in Nuseirat. Weeks of intelligence work preceded that operation. U.S. intelligence sharing, including drone surveillance over Gaza, also supported Israel’s search for hostages and Hamas personnel. Military action could create opportunities for rescue, but captors’ control over a hostage’s location made each operation dangerous.^[7][8][10]

By September 2024, Hamas still held hostages seized on October 7. Israeli forces found six captives dead in a tunnel beneath Rafah: Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino. An IDF investigation later concluded that their captors had murdered them shortly before Israeli troops reached the area. Their bodies were returned to Israel for identification and burial. The discovery underscored why recovering remains remained part of the hostage mission, even when a living rescue was no longer possible.^[9]

Negotiations resumed with a January 2025 agreement providing for releases in stages during a ceasefire. The first phase called for 33 Israeli hostages to be released. Emily Damari and Romi Gonen were among those who returned in January. Damari had lost two fingers when terrorists attacked her home on October 7; Gonen faced daily rehabilitation for the hand injury she sustained while fleeing Nova. Their return showed both the immediate significance of an exchange and the medical needs that continued after captivity. Further talks addressed the remaining captives, the length of pauses and conditions for subsequent phases. Egypt helped facilitate the process, while U.S. envoys and Qatar remained involved in negotiations with Hamas.^[11][12][19]

Talks and military operations continued through 2025. In September, as Israel prepared a ground operation in Gaza City, 48 hostages remained in Gaza and about 20 were believed to be alive. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned that fighting in the city posed an immediate danger to them. The mother of Guy Gilboa-Dalal received information that Hamas had moved her son above ground. Reports that Hamas placed captives in homes and tents as human shields intensified fears for their safety. The danger arose from their continued captivity and from operations in the areas where they were held. Israel also warned residents to leave combat areas as its campaign against Hamas proceeded.^[13][14]

An agreement reached in October 2025 brought the remaining 20 living hostages home on October 13, including Avinatan Or and Eitan Mor. Or had spent much of his captivity alone in a cramped tunnel cell. The agreement also required the return of deceased hostages, yet their remains arrived more slowly. On October 14, four bodies had been returned while 24 remained in Gaza. Families continued pressing Israel and the mediators to complete that part of the agreement. The final recovery came on January 26, 2026, when Israeli forces located Ran Gvili’s remains in Gaza City and returned them to Israel for burial.^[15][16][17]

Israel's conduct and the protection of civilians

Israel pursued hostage recovery alongside its campaign to defeat Hamas’s military and governing structures. These objectives required decisions about military pressure, intelligence work and negotiated pauses. In the opening weeks, the United States sent additional forces to the region as the Iranian regime threatened intervention and the risk of a wider war increased. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin described a second aircraft carrier deployment as a deterrent to attacks on Israel and expansion of the conflict. The United States also deployed a rapid-response force of about 2,000 Marines. These deployments supported the wider effort to contain the war while Washington worked with Israel and regional mediators on the captives’ release.^[1]

Israeli operations in Gaza had to account for both hostages and civilians living near Hamas positions. The Rafah rescue in February 2024 depended on specific intelligence and coordinated forces. Before the June Nuseirat rescue, Israeli intelligence determined that four captives were held in homes within populated neighborhoods. In the Gaza City operation of 2025, families feared that military action could reach areas where hostages were confined. Hamas’s movement of captives above ground increased that risk. Israel’s stated objectives also included facilitating humanitarian aid for Gaza’s civilians. Protection of civilians, rescue of captives and operations against Hamas remained connected practical concerns throughout the campaign.^{[7][8][13][14]}

Terrorist tactics and propaganda

Hamas used captivity to exert pressure on Israel and on hostage families. Its operatives held people in underground tunnels and civilian buildings, controlled information about whether captives were alive and released videos intended to influence public debate over negotiations. Some hostages were ordered to deliver appeals on camera; Avinatan Or deliberately gave an unconvincing appeal when captors directed him to urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a deal. Such recordings reflected the captors’ control over what hostages could say and could not serve as free expressions of their wishes. The public handovers of November 2023 likewise placed freed civilians in staged scenes involving masked armed men and crowds.^[5][13]

Conditions of captivity caused lasting harm. Ron Krivoi escaped after an Israeli Air Force strike hit the Gaza apartment where he was held, then evaded capture for several days before people in Gaza caught and beat him. Maya Regev described captors causing pain while treating a wound she sustained fleeing Nova; surgery during captivity left her injured leg at an angle that made walking difficult. Romi Gonen needed continuing treatment after her release. The murder of six hostages in a Rafah tunnel showed the most severe danger facing captives as Israeli forces approached. These experiences made access to medical care, reliable information and prompt release persistent demands of families and negotiators.^[9][19]

Outcome

Negotiated releases, rescues and the recovery of bodies unfolded over more than two years. The November 2023 pause returned many women and children but left others captive. Israeli operations freed individuals and small groups in 2024; the January and October 2025 agreements brought home larger groups. The last living hostages were released on October 13, 2025, while recovery of the dead continued. After the October agreement, Israel maintained that returning remains was part of fulfilling the deal. Gvili’s recovery in January 2026 ended the captivity of those taken on October 7 and allowed his family to bury him in Israel.^{[5][7][8][11][15][17]}

The outcome did not erase the distinctions between those who survived captivity, those murdered after abduction and those killed on October 7 whose bodies were taken to Gaza. It also did not end survivors’ medical treatment or families’ grief. Israel’s efforts to return every person reflected a commitment that the dead as well as the living should come home. The final search required intelligence, forensic work and an operation in Gaza City months after the last living captives had been released.^[9][17]

Aftermath and legacy

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum became the best-known public voice for many captives’ relatives. Founded after October 7, it organized rallies, supported families and pressed decision-makers to secure every return. Portraits of hostages appeared across Tel Aviv, where Hostages Square became a focal point for gatherings. Families differed over the terms Israel should accept in negotiations, but their campaigns kept the people behind changing hostage counts before the public. International supporters joined that effort. More than 2,000 entertainment industry figures, including Gal Gadot and Jerry Seinfeld, signed a letter urging Hamas to return innocent hostages, calling on peers to support Israel, speak against Hamas and avoid spreading misinformation.^[1][2][18]

Survivors’ rehabilitation and the burial of the murdered remained central after each release. Gvili’s return gave the final waiting family a burial and marked the first time since 2014 that no Israeli hostage remained held in Gaza. The crisis also left a record of how mass abduction affected a war: captors used people as bargaining instruments, families sustained a long public campaign, and Israel combined military pressure, intelligence, diplomacy and searches for remains. Its end was measured not by a single pause or exchange, but by the return of the last person taken on October 7.^[17][19]