How many hostages remain in Gaza?

19th March 2025

2 minutes read

With the renewed Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip and Hamas‘s warning about the risk to the remaining hostages, many are wondering how many are still being held.

Early this Tuesday, Israel launched a new wave of airstrikes on Gaza, ending a period of calm in the fighting during which 33 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for nearly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners.

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Justifying the resumption of the fighting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that he ordered the airstrikes due to the lack of progress in negotiations to extend the ceasefire.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that the fighting would continue until all hostages were released.

For its part, Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire agreement and stated that the renewed airstrikes put the remaining hostages at risk.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants captured 251 people in a surprise attack on towns in southern Israel, which also resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths, according to the Israeli army.

In response, over 48,000 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Here are the details of the hostages, according to Israeli figures and the Associated Press:

Total number of hostages captured on October 7: 251
Hostages captured before the October 7 attack: two entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in the 2014 war.
Hostages released in prisoner exchanges or other deals: 147, including 8 killed.
Hostages still in captivity: 59, with Israel believing 35 of them are deceased. Their release was expected as part of successful negotiations for the second phase of the agreement, which has not yet begun.
Tel Aviv indicated that the majority of hostages still in Gaza hold Israeli or dual nationality.
Bodies of hostages recovered by Israeli forces: 41.
Hostages saved alive: 8.

Among the remaining hostages:

13 soldiers, 9 of whom Israel has announced as dead.
5 non-Israelis (3 Thais, 1 Nepali, 1 Tanzanian), of whom two (a Thai and a Nepali) are believed to still be alive.

The largest hostage release took place in late November 2023 during ceasefire negotiations, under which 100 hostages were freed.

On January 19 of this year, a new ceasefire agreement came into effect, with three phases.

During the first phase, which was scheduled to end on March 1, Tel Aviv released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 25 Israeli hostages (including two who had been held in Gaza for about a decade) and the bodies of eight others.