Six Israeli hostages, bodies to be released from Gaza

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Four men held hostage in Gaza since 7 October 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 19 January 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; Omer Shem Tov, 22; Tal Shoham, 40; Omer Wenkert, 23; Hisham al-Sayed, 37; and Avraham Mengistu, 38.

Cohen attended the Nova music festival with his fiancee, Ziv Aboud, who survived the 7 October 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.

Tov, a computer programmer who turned 22 in captivity, was also at the Nova music festival along the border when Hamas attacked. He is in regular contact with his parents.

Israeli-Austrian dual national Shoham 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 7 October 2023 attack.

The eldest of four children, 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’s last message to his mother before being kidnapped was: “I am scared to death.”

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 15 February.

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.

His parents say he has schizophrenia and needs daily medication.

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.