Jerusalem
Reuters
Families of some Israeli hostages in Gaza have received signs of life from their loved ones for the first time in more than a year via captives who have been freed over the past weeks in the ceasefire deal with Hamas.
The messages, along with reports of their harsh conditions in captivity, have been carried by some of the 19 Israeli hostages freed so far in the ceasefire that took effect on 19th January.
People take part in a rally to mark the 500 days since 7th October, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and took hostages, outside Kibbutz Be’eri, near the border between Israel and Gaza, on 17th February, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/Amir Cohen
While the reports have strengthened the families’ hope to reunite with their relatives, they have also filled them with dread over their wellbeing. The emaciated appearance of three of the hostages freed on February 8 have only added to their fears.
Signs of life have come so far from at least 10 hostages who were among the 251 kidnapped during Hamas’ 7th October attack on southern Israel, which triggered the Gaza war.
Among them is Elkana Bohbut, 35, seized from the Nova music festival. A video of him bound and with a bloody face circulated on social media within hours of his abduction.
Almost 500 days after, through a freed hostage with whom he was being held in a Gaza tunnel, he asked his wife Rivka to listen every day to an Israeli pop song called Warrior and draw strength from it.
“500 terrible days have passed, and this week, thank God, we received a sign of life. Elkana is alive but suffering in inhuman conditions,” said Rivka Bohbot, before she quoted the song back to him on Saturday.
“I promise you that we will not stop until you come back. We will never give up on you. Don’t break, my beloved. Soon you will be home. Soon the nightmare will be over,” she said, crying and smiling on the stage of a weekly hostage rally in Tel Aviv.
500 DAYS OF THE ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR, BY THE NUMBERS
Monday is the 500th day of the war triggered by Hamas’ 7th October, 2023 attack into southern Israel.
A tenuous ceasefire in the Gaza Strip has held for nearly a month. But the current phase of the truce is set to expire in early March and it is unclear if the sides will extend it, begin negotiations for a more lasting ceasefire or resume fighting.
Here are some numbers that show the scale of death and devastation. Sources include the Israeli government, the Gaza Health Ministry and UN agencies…
• People killed in Israel on 7th October, 2023: Around 1,200
• Hostages taken into Gaza: 251
• Hostages remaining in Gaza: 73, including three taken before 7th October, 2023
• Hostages in Gaza believed to be dead: 36, including one from before 7th October, 2023
• Palestinians killed in Gaza: Over 48,200 (This figure from the Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead were women and children)
• Palestinians wounded in Gaza: Over 111,600
• Israeli soldiers killed since 7th October, 2023: 846
• Rockets fired at Israel from Gaza since 7th October, 2023: Over 10,000
• Percentage of Gaza’s population displaced: Around 90 per cent
• Palestinians who have crossed into northern Gaza since the ceasefire began: 586,000
• Israelis displaced by attacks from Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon at their peak: Over 75,500
• Housing units damaged or destroyed in Gaza: Over 245,000
• Primary roads damaged or destroyed in Gaza: Over 92 per cent
• Health facilities damaged or destroyed in Gaza: Over 84 per cent
– AP
Another hostage who got a message out was 24-year-old pianist Alon Ohel, seized from a roadside bomb shelter where he had fled to from the Nova festival.
His mother Idit said he is being held injured and shackled in a tunnel, living off one piece of bread a day. But he still managed to send his sister a happy birthday message through one of the freed hostages, she said on Tuesday.
“It was wonderful,” she said as she broke into tears. “To hear from her brother, which is incredible to have that on her birthday.”
“500-day-long nightmare”
Marking 500 days of captivity hostage families and their supporters held a day of protests across Israel, calling for the release of the 73 captives still in Gaza.
Family and supporters of hostages protest outside the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, to mark the 500 days since 7th October, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel and took hostages, in Jerusalem, on 17th February, 2025. PICTURE: Reuters/ Ronen Zvulun
Two of them are Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, twin brothers kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who are not among the 14 hostages slated for release in the first and ongoing phase of the ceasefire.
Their family recently received confirmation that they are still alive, after last hearing that in November. 2023, from hostages freed in a brief truce, their aunt Makabit Mayer told Reuters on Monday at Israel’s parliament where she was speaking to lawmakers as part of the 500-day protests.
“The difficulty is unbearable. It’s an ongoing nightmare but the sign of life certainly breathed life into our lungs, it has given us air to breath. But since we know whose hands they are in, we know it can change at any moment,” Mayer said.
A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing said in January that the militant group maintains the wellbeing of its captives.
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Another hostage is Omri Miran, 47, who was last seen alive in April, in a video released by the militants holding him. He was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, in front of his wife and two little daughters.
“[It has been] 500 days that I wake up every morning and am still in October 7,” said Omri’s wife, Lishay Lavi Miran. “We don’t want a sign of life. We want Omri to come back alive, here, to be with us.”
Though it is painful for her when their three-and-a-half-year-old daughter wakes up every morning and asks when her daddy is coming home, she said, the family will not give up. “We always have hope. We can’t be without hope,” said Miran.
The hostages were taken in the Hamas-led cross-border attack on 7th October, 2023, which also killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s retaliatory assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, and laid waste to much of the enclave even as the hostages remained in captivity.
– Additional reporting by DEDI HAYUN
