2023-12-01 00:33:10
Two young Bedouins and six women aged 21 to 41, including a Franco-Israeli, Mia Shem. Here is what we know about the eight Israeli hostages released Thursday by Hamas, according to accounts from their relatives to AFP, information from the Israeli press and the Hostage Families Forum.
To these eight hostages, we must add two Russian-Israeli women released on Wednesday, bringing the total of hostages counted in Thursday’s exchange to ten, in accordance with the terms of the exchanges agreed between the belligerents.
These releases bring to 110 the number of hostages released, Israeli and foreign, or more than 45% of the approximately 240 people sequestered in Gaza since their kidnapping on October 7.
Among them, 80 women, children and young people under 19 have been released since Friday, in exchange for the release of 210 Palestinian prisoners, as part of the truce agreement between Israel and Hamas. Thirty other Palestinian detainees are to be released overnight from Thursday to Friday.
Also released, outside the framework of the agreement, were 23 Thais, a Filipino and a Russian-Israeli. Five hostages had previously been released in October, before the truce.
Bilal al-Zayadna, 18, and his little sister Aïcha, 17, were kidnapped along with their father Youssef (53) and their big brother Hamza (22) from Kibbutz Holit, where they were participating in the harvest olives.
This Bedouin family, originally from Rahat, a town in the Negev desert region (southern Israel), worked as a day worker in agriculture.
Shortly after the attack on October 7, the farm manager who employed them announced to their family that video surveillance had filmed Aïcha and her father while they were escorted by armed men.
“I beg the world to give me back my baby!”: Keren, the mother of Franco-Israeli Mia Shem (21), moved heaven and earth to make “world leaders” aware of the plight of her daughter.
On Saturday October 7 in the morning, Mia participated in the Tribe of Nova music festival with her friend Elya Toledano (27 years old, still captive), also Franco-Israeli. Trying to escape, they discovered that the tires of their cars had been slashed. “They are shooting at us, come help us,” she texted shortly after 7 a.m. to a friend.
The young woman, injured in the arm, was the first hostage to appear on a video released by Hamas on October 16.
French through her father, Mia Shem, who works in a tattoo parlor, is the fourth Franco-Israeli to be released, after Eitan, Erez and Sahar, three teenagers released on Monday.
Shani Goren, who suffers from panic attacks, was on the phone with her sister-in-law when the attackers took her hostage at her home. Her kidnapping, on a trailer pulled by a tractor in the company of four neighbors, was filmed.
Of Israeli and Uruguayan nationality, Shani Goren, the youngest of three siblings, was born in Nir Oz and grew up there. His two parents, who live separately in the kibbutz, escaped the attack.
She works with children as an education counselor.
Sapir Cohen, 29, was kidnapped along with her Russian-Israeli partner Sasha Trupanov (28) in Nir Oz, where the couple, who recently moved to Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, were visiting family by Sasha.
Their friends quickly managed to identify Sapir in a video posted on social networks.
Sasha’s mother and grandmother, also taken hostage, were released on Wednesday, outside of the agreement between Israel and Hamas, thanks to direct exchanges with Moscow.
Sasha, whose father died in the attack, remains held in Gaza.
Ilana Gritzewsky, a 30-year-old Israeli-Mexican, was kidnapped from her home in Nir Oz. She had taken refuge with her companion Matan Zangauker (24 years old) in their bedroom – the secure room of their house -, before being dislodged by the attackers.
Matan, who is also considered a hostage, has not been released.
Originally from Cancún, in the Yucatan Peninsula (eastern Mexico), Ilana immigrated to Israel at the end of the 2000s. Her parents later joined her there.
Feverish on the morning of October 7, Amit Soussana, 40, remained at home, where she lives alone, when her kibbutz Kfar Aza was stormed by armed men. She told her family shortly after 10 a.m. that she was going to hide in a closet in her secure room and that her phone was dead. It was his last sign of life.
At first uncertain, his hostage status would not be confirmed until three weeks later.
Lawyer specializing in intellectual property, Amit Soussana, mistress of three cats, likes to play tennis, listen to rock and watch the series The Sopranos.
Nili Margalit, a 41-year-old pediatric nurse at Soroka Hospital (central Israel), put her skills at the service of other hostages in the Gaza tunnels, according to the accounts of ex-hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, an octogenarian released in october.
She had been captured at her home in Nir Oz. Holed up in her mamad, her secure room, with her dog Natchy-Natch, she had communicated with friends by SMS, before stopping giving signs of life shortly after 9 a.m.
His house was burned to the ground, making it difficult to confirm his kidnapping, which only came after weeks.
His father Eliyahu Margalit is still captive.
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