Eight of the remaining hostages set to be released by Hamas in the first phase of a ceasefire agreement with Israel are dead, according to an Israeli government spokesperson.
The rest of the 33 hostages who were expected to be returned from Gaza to their families are alive, David Mencer said in a briefing on Monday, including seven who have already been returned. Israeli authorities were notified of the hostages’ status after receiving a list from Hamas, he said.
According to Mencer, the eight dead were killed by Hamas. The Palestinian militant group has not commented on their cause of death.
The first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal – which started on January 19 – will see dozens of hostages taken captive by Hamas and other armed groups in the October 7 attacks being freed.
Of those hostages expected to be released, 21 are men, three are women, and two are children, ranging in age from two years old to 86 years old, according to the forum and the Israeli government press office.
Israel will also release almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in the first part of the agreement.
The ceasefire delivered the first reprieve for the people of Gaza, after more than 15 months of Israeli bombing following the October 7 attacks.
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians on Monday began returning home to northern Gaza, large swathes of which have been razed by more than a year of relentless airstrikes and ground raids.
Freed hostages spent over eight months in tunnels, says Israeli officer
The most recent hostages to be released from captivity were four female Israeli soldiers freed on January 25 as part of the long-anticipated ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Several of the seven hostages released from Gaza in the past week had been held in tunnels for more than eight months, according senior Israeli military officer.
Seven women released so far showed symptoms of mild starvation with low vitamin levels, said Avi Benov, the deputy chief of the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps. Their mental health, he said, was a very complicated issue.
The former hostages were given vitamins and modest amounts of food during their first medical check-up at Israel’s Re’im military base, the officer said. They were asked if they wanted to shower and change clothes before meeting their parents and were reassured they were safe, he added.
Benov claimed that Hamas had fed them better and allowed them to wash and change clothes in the days before their release, for propaganda purposes.
He said the younger hostages were in better shape, adding that when the older captives start returning they will probably be in worse condition, having spent more than a year in captivity.
Benov declined to answer a question about whether there were physical signs the hostages were tortured. “They will tell their own stories,” he said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.