Families of three more Israeli hostages announced they had received signs of life from their loved ones, bringing the total to ten in recent days. However, only one of them is included in the current ceasefire-hostage deal.
Since the truce began on January 19, Hamas has released 16 hostages, but 73 remain captive, with only around 30 believed to be alive. Some families have chosen to keep their received signs of life private, according to Channel 12. Reports indicate that many of the hostages previously thought to be alive have now been confirmed to have survived.
Anat Angrest, the mother of captive soldier Matan Angrest, confirmed receiving proof that her son is alive but held under severe conditions. Other hostages, including Yosef-Haim Ohana, Eitan Mor, and Omri Miran, have also been confirmed alive through messages from released captives. However, families worry about their deteriorating health after seeing the state of recently freed hostages, who appeared starved and weak.
One of the most harrowing testimonies came from the mother of Eliya Cohen, who was taken captive from the Nova rave. Reports suggest he has been chained, gagged, burned, hung by his feet, and left with untreated wounds.
While Hamas has released 21 hostages during the current ceasefire, negotiations remain tense. Israel continues to push for more hostage releases while families anxiously await further proof of life.
The Haaretz daily reported that signs of life have been received for most of the hostages whom Israel had believed were alive, adding that some of them are recent while others are relevant for some point in the past.
Anat Angrest, mother of captive soldier Matan Angrest, 21, said Wednesday that she had received a fresh sign of life from her son.
“We received information that he is alive and held under harsh conditions,” Anat told Channel 12.
“He was kidnapped from a tank, covered in burns. He underwent severe interrogations there, we saw it on his face in the video that we decided not to publish yet,” she said, referring to a Hamas propaganda video released in September.
Angrest was on duty at the IDF’s Nahal Oz base on the morning of October 7, when some 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, many amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
“We heard that he is being held there in difficult conditions because he is a soldier, and we do not know what the long-term consequences of this injury are,” his mother added.
Earlier in the day, the family of Yosef-Haim Ohana, 24, said it had received a “clear” signal that he is still alive but expressed fears for his fate following the release of three Israelis over the weekend, looking emaciated and sickly after 16 months of Hamas captivity.
Ohana was kidnapped from the Nova desert rave as he and a friend attempted to provide aid to injured partygoers amid the terrorist onslaught.
“We have a clear indication that he is alive,” Ohana’s aunt Hana Mastronov told the Ynet news site Wednesday. “There are signs showing that he is alive.”
On Wednesday evening, the family of hostage Eitan Mor, 23, said they had received a sign of life from him.
In a statement, they wrote that “we pray for the return of all the hostages including our son Eitan.”
Mor was a security guard at the Nova rave music festival when he was captured.
His parents are members of the Tikva Forum of hostage families, a more hawkish group who have said that Israel should not reach an exchange deal and instead achieve freedom for the abductees via military pressure. However, they have softened their stance in recent days, particularly following the return of three hostages on Saturday in a severely emaciated state.
On Tuesday, the family of twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, said it had received signs of life from the brothers.
“We take a deep breath, but we know whose hands they are in and how much danger their lives are in,” the family said in a message to the residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, from where they were taken hostage on October 7, 2023.
No further details were given.
Later Tuesday, the family of Hamas hostage Omri Miran, 46, said it received a sign of life from him, via a recently released hostage.
Brothers Boaz and Nadav Miran said that the returned hostage told them he had been held with Omri until July 2024, and at that time he seemed to be physically fine. The two noted, however, that his situation may have since deteriorated in the seven months that have passed.
Miran was taken captive from Kibbutz Nahal Oz by terrorists who drove him across the border in his car. His wife Lishay Miran was left behind with their two daughters, Roni, then aged 2, and Alma, then aged 6 months.
On Monday, the mother of another hostage, Alon Ohel, 24, said the family had received a first sign of life from her son, revealing that he was being held in chains, starved and untreated for shrapnel in his shoulder, arm, and now partially blinded eye.
“We’ve been learning more and more details since Saturday and can no longer remain silent,” Idit Ohel told Army Radio, as her hostage son marked his 24th birthday. “The prime minister can’t say he didn’t know, can’t say he didn’t hear and wasn’t notified about the state of the hostages. Every day there is hell.”
The family of 20-year-old captive soldier Nimrod Cohen told The Times of Israel this week that a returning hostage had recently said they saw him alive eight months ago, though in poor physical and mental shape.
There hasn’t been a more recent sign of life from him.
On Sunday, the mother of hostage Eliya Cohen, 27, said her son had been held with returning hostages who were chained, gagged, burned with a searing hot object, hung by the feet, and starved.
Sigi Cohen said the hostages testified that her son is being held in a tunnel, has been chained for the entire length of his captivity, gets little food or daylight, and suffers from an untreated bullet wound to the leg sustained during the Hamas onslaught.
Eliya Cohen is the only captive out of the nine who is slated to go free in the current first phase of the deal.
The family of hostage Elkana Bohbot, 34, also said this week that it had recently been told by released hostage Or Levy that their loved one was alive and had been held with Levy for over a year.
Ruhama, his mother, told Israel Hayom: “We waited a long time for this sign. Right now, we know that Elkana is alive and must return. It gave us some breathing room, but we are still worried.”
Hamas has so far released 21 hostages — civilians, female soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during the ceasefire.
Seventy-three hostages kidnapped on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier killed in 2014 was recovered from Gaza in January.
