The number of hostages in Gaza who are set to return to Israel, believed to be alive, stands as a symbolic figure from the history of this war: a round number of 20. The ceasefire, in its first phase, in Gaza will send them back to their homeland, and their safe return will create harbors of tears. Tears of joy from their loved ones, families and friends, who have been walking a tightrope for these two years between hope and despair, wondering if they would see them again or not. Alive one day, dead the next. There are also the others, however, the 28 out of 48 total, who are considered dead.
The 20 hostages, who will experience freedom like never before, will also vindicate the statement of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu: “In 2023, the festival of Simchat Torah (the joy of the Torah) became a day of national mourning, but this year it will become a day of national celebration, joy for the return of all our hostage brothers”.
Gaza: These are the 20 hostages believed to be returning
According to the agreement, the presumed 20 living hostages are expected to be in Israel by Monday, October 13. The ceasefire in Gaza, even with asterisks, has begun, therefore the procedures for release and return now exist as fact. The 20 hostages they are waiting for in Israel are as follows.
Matan Angrest, 22 years old: Matan Angrest paid for his selflessness on the battlefield. The young non-commissioned officer’s capture occurred in his battle tank near the Gaza Strip. They caught him while he was protecting the Nahal Oz base from invading fighters of the Palestinian Islamist movement. He was the only survivor from his four-man crew. Two bodies are still in Gaza. His family released a shocking video in April 2025, which captures the exact moment of his abduction. He traces his origins to Kiryat Bialik in northern Israel, and supports Maccabi Haifa, quite familiar to Greek teams. The trip his family had planned to Dubai to celebrate the approaching end of his military service may not have happened, but the celebration that will be held at their home will be unprecedented.
Gali and Ziv Berman, 28 years old: They were born almost at the same time and were destined to become hostages and possibly freed simultaneously. They were in the young people’s neighborhood of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, which Hamas fighters set ablaze, and were thus abducted. They also work in the same field – music production, while supporting the same teams, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Liverpool. The family had no losses, as both parents and their older brother came out alive from the attack.
Elkana Bohbot, 36 years old: One of the older hostages in Gaza by age, he didn’t expect that the Supernova festival, which he was organizing, would turn into an endless nightmare. The mourning for his childhood friends, Michael and Oser Waknin, who were killed the same day, that massacre in which he was captured handcuffed and injured in the face by his captors, cost the lives of 370 people. His wife, with roots from Colombia, Rebecca Gonzales, awaits him along with their son. Moreover, she was the one who had stated 8 months ago, in February 2025, that “I have proof he’s alive,” which she received from former hostage Ohad Ben Ami, who was released on February 8 and became a messenger of good news. The Israeli state owes it to help him make his dream come true – to open an ice cream business in Tel Aviv’s market. This is what his parents said he would do in mid-October 2023, according to his parents. Hamas had broadcast a video showing him, along with another hostage, Joseph Haim Orhana, lying with a blanket, but silent and weakened.
The Rubik’s cube and the “Letter to David”
Rom Braslavsky, 21 years old: He worked in security at the Supernova festival and was fearless during Hamas’s attack, as according to his mother and survivors, from 10:30 when he spoke with her until 13:30 when they took him, he helped many festival attendees. A German citizen, he was injured in both hands during the attack. Rom Branislavsky also appeared in a video by Islamic Jihad, Hamas’s ally, in August 2025. He spoke, probably because they forced him to, while looking weakened and thin.
Nimrod Cohen, 21 years old: The faulty brakes of his assault tank were what immobilized the 21-year-old soldier at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, where he was with the armored unit he served. Hamas pulled him and three others from his crew out of the tank and publicized it in a video. The other three, Omer Neutra, Oz Daniel and Shaked Dahan, were killed the same day and the organization transferred their bodies to Gaza. The young man traces his origins to Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv. His parents, Yehuda and Vicki Cohen, joined their voices with those of people demonstrating for the release of hostages in Israel and the United States, holding their son’s picture. Movie material is also the Rubik’s cube that Nimrod Cohen always had with him. The army returned it burned, in one part, to Vicki after finding it in his tank, which she will have with her when she reunites with her child again.
David and Ariel Cunio, 35 and 28 years old: Hamas snatched the two men and their family from a safe room in the older brother’s house in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Only under the threat of death – the burning of the residence – did they come out. This happened to the other six who became hostages as well. That is, Sharon Aloni Cunio, 34, David Cunio’s wife, and their twin three-year-old children. Danielle Aloni, 44, Sharon Aloni Cunio’s sister, and her 5-year-old daughter, who were released during the ceasefire achieved in November 2023. Ariel Cunio’s fiancée, Arbel Yehud, 28, who was released on January 30. Such was the intensity of their story that Israeli director Tom Shoval made the film “A letter to David,” which he presented last February at the Berlin festival (Berlinale). Obviously dedicated to David Cunio. Moreover, 10 years earlier, in 2013, David Cunio and his twin brother Eitan had presented the film “Youth” at the same festival, in which they played the main characters under Shoval’s direction. The latter managed to escape Hamas and hide in his shelter in Nir Oz. It was a violent separation, as they were very close, as shown by the same tattoo of three small stars in dark green on the inside of their wrists. At the festival opening, director Tricia Tuttle, actors and directors held up David Cunio’s photograph on the red carpet. Due to quality and as a tribute, the film “Letter to David” received the Ophir Award (Israeli Oscar) for best documentary in September.
Japanese culture and the tragic irony of a message
Eviatar David, 24 years old: From the Supernova festival to what his parents thought would be an unsuccessful mourning, a photograph of the 24-year-old on Telegram rekindled their hopes. At least their son was a hostage in Gaza, they would recognize him anywhere, especially in this shot, with his face lit by a flashlight. Both he and Guy Gilboa Dalal, his childhood friend, participated in the festival. His family comes from Kfar Saba in central Israel. The 24-year-old had music in him, and to travel to Thailand he worked even in cafes. His parents confirmed he was alive in August 2025, when Hamas published a video showing him severely undernourished and visibly weakened.
Guy Gilboa Dalal, 24 years old: Along with Eviatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal is also counted as a hostage. He was with two other friends and they were abducted together. His family initially confirmed he was living after watching him in a video with him and his best friend Eviatar David, with their hands tied in a tunnel in Gaza. Based on a hostage who was freed in June after an Israeli army operation, both were suffering terribly from their captors. In February 2025, additionally, they appeared together in a video, undergoing psychological torture. Specifically, they watched one of the hostage release scenes in Gaza before Hamas fighters locked them in the car. The last sound of the broadcast was their cry for freedom. The 24-year-old appeared in a new Hamas video on September 5, along with another hostage, Alon Ohel. The scene resembled a tunnel. He was a young man with dreams and probably an anime fan. His interests align: knowledge of Japanese, the desire to travel someday to the “Land of the Rising Sun,” and his involvement with computer science.
Maxim Herkin, 37 years old: In Tiran Carmel, northern Israel, lives Israeli-Russian Maxim Herkin. Father of a 5-year-old girl, he misses her immensely, but she is safe as she lives with her mother in Russia. He had arrived in Israel from Ukraine with his Ukrainian mother. Tragic irony, he sent her a message shortly before his abduction at the Supernova festival: “Everything’s fine, I’m returning.” Herkin will return different, as in spring 2025, video from Hamas’s armed wing shows Maxim Herkin lying down, with his head and left hand bandaged and brown stains.
Eitan Horn, 39 years old: He lives in Kfar Saba city, in the center. His abduction took place at his older brother Gair Horn’s house in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Gair, diabetic, was released in February 2025. The two brothers were held together before Gair returned. The family had arrived in Israel from Argentina. Eitan Horn was active. A man of spirit, namely an educator, he contributed to various youth movements and had reached Peru as part of a mission.
The father’s miracle and the beard
Segev Kalfon, 27 years old: Hamas fighters found him hidden in a bush-connector of kibbutzim near Gaza, at the edge of road 232. This was commented by a childhood friend of his, with whom he was entertained at the Supernova festival. He is a resident of Dimona, in southern Israel. Another testimony from a hostage last February, emphasizing that he was held with him and was alive, rekindled his family’s hopes.
Bar Kuperstein, 23 years old: Fearless and full of self-sacrifice, he helped Supernova festival attendees who had been injured. He was, moreover, a nurse in the army – it seems like a joke that on October 7 he wasn’t on duty, but his name was on the festival roster. Published videos showed him with his hands tied. Bar probably thought of his father, Tal Kuperstein, formerly a volunteer rescuer, now disabled. The child grew up abruptly and became a man. Tal, however, set a goal to give his son a gift when he returned. He managed to speak a few months ago. Bar followed in his footsteps, moreover, and became the advanced version of him. In August 2023 he saved his grandfather, Michael Kuperstein, who suffered a myocardial infarction at their home.
Omri Miran, 48 years old: With Hungarian nationality, the middle-aged masseur-therapist will never forget the looks of his wife, Litsai Miran-Lavi, and their two daughters when he was abducted at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Danny Miran, his father, created a beautiful story. He grows a beard until his son returns. He saw him bearded in a Hamas video in April 2024, and said: “If my son can’t shave, I won’t shave either.” They forced him to speak in that video. He described a “difficult situation” due to the “many bombings” by Israel in the Gaza Strip. He hoped, as he said, to reunite with his family for the anniversary of the Jewish state’s establishment on May 14. He reappeared in footage Hamas published on April 23, 2025.
The pianist
Eitan Mor, 25 years old: The oldest of eight siblings in a religious family living in the Kiryat Arba settlement in the occupied West Bank, Eitan Mor was at Nova as a guard with friends. His father Tzvika Mor is the founder of the Hope Forum, a collective of hostage parents who oppose any agreement with Hamas and demand Israeli authorities exert more military pressure so Hamas will surrender and release the hostages. Eitan Mor worked at a cafe in Jerusalem and dreamed of opening his own restaurant. He maintained contact with his parents although he had distanced himself from religion.
Joseph Haim Ohana, 25 years old: Joseph Haim Ohana, from Kiryat Malchi (south), wanted to pursue coaching studies. He was abducted at the Nova festival where he was a bartender. They saw him helping the wounded before escaping with a friend. Child of divorced parents, Ohana lost his brother Atsher Yitzak to cancer at age seven when he was a child. The hostage appeared in May in a video Hamas published, along with another hostage, Elkana Bohbot.
Alon Ohel, 24 years old: A talented pianist, Alon Ohel, who was about to start music studies at the prestigious Rimon de Ramat Hasharon school (central), had returned from a trip to Asia a few weeks before being abducted at the Nova festival
