Monitoring the status of hostages still in Gaza after Hamas’s attack

The cross-border attack that Hamas militants launched on Oct. 7, 2023, is regarded as the deadliest and most brutal attack in Israeli history. Palestinian militants shot, bombed and burned their way through Israeli towns, military posts and a music festival, killing and sometimes torturing 1,200 people — including more than 300 soldiers — and taking 251 more hostage, according to the Israeli government.

In response, Israel launched a military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, in what the United Nations’ human rights agency has since described as an “unprecedented level of killing and injury of civilians.” More than 44,000 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

There was brief progress in freeing the hostages last year amid mounting pressure from their families and international allies, in particular the United States. Under an exchange deal that began on Nov. 24, 2023, Hamas released 78 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, all of them women or teenagers; 24 foreign nationals and three Israeli-Russian dual nationals were released outside of that agreement during the same period.

The United States pushed for a broader deal that could also encompass the release of men and military personnel, but negotiations broke down and hostilities resumed on Dec. 1, 2023 — and there has been little progress toward a deal since.

As the war goes on, Israel has continued to announce the deaths of hostages — some who it confirmed during forensic and other investigations were killed in the Oct. 7 attack and their bodies taken into Gaza, and others who it says were killed by militants during captivity.

Israel has said at least three hostages were killed in its own operations and said that it was “highly likely” that at least three others were killed “as a result of a byproduct of an IDF airstrike” in late 2023. Hamas has said that Israeli strikes have also killed other hostages, although The Washington Post could not independently verify this.

While Hamas is thought to hold most of the hostages, some are believed to be held by other militant groups, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, whose fighters also took part in the Oct. 7 attack.

The number of hostages who have died in captivity and the ages, genders and nationalities of those remaining in Gaza are unclear. Israel has indicated that the majority of those remaining have Israeli or dual citizenship and are male.

Four American hostages are still believed to be alive in Gaza, and the bodies of three others are still being held there. Washington is seeking an accounting of their deaths, according to the State Department. There are six Thai citizens and one Nepali citizen still believed to be in captivity.

It’s unclear how many hostages are members of the Israeli military. The only children on Israel’s list of remaining hostages are Kfir Bibas, 1, and his brother Ariel, 5. Israel has said it is assessing Hamas’s claims that the Bibas children and their mother, Shiri, were killed. Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the father of the two children, is also being held hostage in Gaza and is believed to be alive.