Three more families of hostages revealed on Wednesday that they had received recent signs of life from their loved ones, raising the total number of hostages for whom signs of life have been confirmed in the past few days to 10.
Of these 10 hostages, only one is on the list of the 33 captives that Hamas is expected to release during the initial phase of the ceasefire-hostage agreement. Since the ceasefire began on January 19, Hamas has freed 16 Israeli hostages. In total, Hamas is holding 73 of the 251 hostages it captured on October 7, 2023, with around 30 of them believed to be alive.
In addition to the families who have made the signs of life public, further indications of life have been received for two captives, whose families have chosen not to disclose this information, according to Channel 12 News.
The Haaretz daily reported that most of the hostages Israel had believed were alive have been confirmed to be receiving signs of life, some recent and others dating back to an earlier time.
Anat Angrest, the mother of 21-year-old captive soldier Matan Angrest, shared on Wednesday that she had recently received an update confirming that her son is still alive.
“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, referencing a Hamas propaganda video from September.
Angrest was stationed at the IDF’s Nahal Oz base on the morning of October 7, when around 3,000 terrorists infiltrated Israel by land, air, and sea, killing approximately 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, many of whom were civilians subjected to extreme violence and abuse.
“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 indicating that he is still alive, although they expressed concern over his well-being, particularly after three Israelis were released over the weekend in a severely emaciated state after 16 months in captivity.
Ohana was abducted from the Nova desert rave while attempting to assist injured partygoers during the attack.
“We have a clear indication that he is alive,” Ohana’s aunt, Hana Mastronov, told the Ynet news site on Wednesday. “There are signs showing that he is alive.”
In the evening, the family of 23-year-old Eitan Mor confirmed that they had received a sign of life from him.
“We pray for the return of all the hostages, including our son Eitan,” they said in a statement.
Mor was a security guard at the Nova rave when he was taken captive.
His parents are part of the Tikva Forum, a more hardline group of hostage families advocating for Israel to use military pressure rather than engage in exchange deals. However, they have softened their position recently, particularly after seeing three hostages return in a severely weakened state on Shabbos.
On Tuesday, the family of twins Gali and Ziv Berman, 27, reported receiving 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 shared in a message to the residents of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, from which the brothers were taken on October 7, 2023.
Later that day, the family of Omri Miran, 46, said it had received a sign of life from him, through a recently returned hostage.
Brothers Boaz and Nadav Miran shared that the returned hostage had been with Omri until July 2024, at which point Omri appeared to be in decent physical condition. However, they noted that his situation might have worsened over the seven months since.
Miran was abducted from Kibbutz Nahal Oz by terrorists, who took him across the border in his own car. His wife, Lishay Miran, was left behind with their two young daughters, Roni and Alma.
On Monday, Idit Ohel, the mother of 24-year-old Alon Ohel, revealed that the family had received their first sign of life from him. She shared that her son was being held in chains, starved, and untreated for injuries sustained during the attack, including shrapnel in his shoulder and eye, which had led to partial blindness.
“We’ve been learning more and more details since Saturday and can no longer remain silent,” Idit Ohel told Army Radio, as her 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 Nimrod Cohen, 20, reported this week that a returning hostage had seen him alive eight months ago, although in poor physical and mental condition. No recent signs of life have been received.
On Sunday, Sigi Cohen, the mother of Eliya Cohen, 27, revealed that her son had been held with returning hostages who had been chained, gagged, burned with hot objects, hung by their feet, and starved.
Sigi Cohen shared that the hostages testified that her son had been held in a tunnel, chained for the entire duration of his captivity, deprived of food and sunlight, and was suffering from an untreated bullet wound to his leg, sustained during the terrorist assault.
Eliya Cohen is the only hostage among the nine who is slated for release in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.
The family of 34-year-old Elkana Bohbot also reported receiving a sign of life this week, from a released hostage named Or Levy, who had been held with Elkana for over a year.
Ruhama Bohbot, his mother, told Yisrael 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 released 21 hostages so far, including civilians, female soldiers, and five Thai nationals, as part of the ceasefire agreement.
Seventy-three hostages, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, remain in Gaza. The terror group previously 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 Israeli forces, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by Israeli forces as they tried to escape.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier killed in 2014. Another IDF soldier killed in 2014 was recovered from Gaza in January.
{Matzav.com Israel}