According to reports, all the live hostages were released and handed over to the Red Cross. The hostages were transferred in two stages through the Red Cross on the morning of October 13: first, seven were taken, then another 13. Among those rescued was Maksim Kharkin, a native of Donbas.
The Palestinian movement Hamas has handed over all 20 remaining living hostages to Israel as part of the peace agreement, Ynet reports. They were transferred to the Israeli side on the morning of October 13 through the Red Cross in two stages: first, the first seven were taken from the Gaza Strip, then another 13. Meanwhile, the bodies of 28 dead hostages remain in Gaza.
The first group of those released included Alon Ohel, Matan Angrest, Eitan Mor, Gali and Ziv Berman, Omri Miran, and Guy Gilboa-Dallal. The second group included Elkana Buchbut, Bar Kuperstein, Maxim Harkin, Segev Kalfon, Eitan Gorn, David Kunio, Ariel Kunio, Nimrod Cohen, Avinatan Or, Yosef Haim Ohana, Matan Zengauker, Evyatar David, and Rom Braslavsky.
Harkin is a native of Donbas and the son of Russian citizen Tala Harkina. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov discussed his release with Hamas in March.
Several days before the exchange, Israeli hospitals Sheba, Beilinson, and Ichilov began preparing to receive the hostages. Medical professionals noted that the captives had been held in harsh conditions for a long time and, judging by Hamas videos, were severely malnourished and exhausted. Intensive care units, as well as psychological and social rehabilitation programs, are being prepared for them. If some of the hostages are in particularly serious condition, they will be hospitalized in Soroka and Barzilai hospitals, located closer to Gaza. As in previous cases, the bodies of the deceased hostages will be identified by the Abu Kabir National Forensic Center in Tel Aviv.
The hostage release agreement was reached as part of the 20-point peace plan proposed by US President Donald Trump. The document also provides for a ceasefire and a phased withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from the Gaza Strip. Prior to the exchange, they withdrew to previously agreed-upon positions, but the military remains in control of approximately 53% of the exclave. During the final phase, Israel will maintain a military presence in the border buffer zone. In its place, a specially created international "stabilization force" will be responsible for security.
Hamas militants willing to lay down their arms and renounce violent struggle will be granted amnesty. Those willing to leave Gaza will be granted safe passage to host countries. The exclave will be administered by an interim government of Palestinian "apolitical technocrats," controlled by a new international structure to be created by the United States with the support of Arab and European countries. According to the White House plan, the new body will be chaired by the American president himself. Negotiations on the final parameters of the settlement are being conducted in Egypt.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants infiltrated southern Israel and took 251 hostages, including soldiers and civilians. At that time, the group already held four people captured in 2014-2015. In response to the militant attack, Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and then launched a ground operation. At the time of the agreement, the IDF controlled approximately 80% of the exclave's territory.
Shortly after the conflict began, on October 20 and 23, Hamas released four hostages for humanitarian reasons. Then, the first ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached, lasting from November 24 to December 1. The group released 105 Israeli and foreign hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.
The second ceasefire was agreed upon more than a year later and lasted from January 19 to March 18. At that time, the group released 30 living hostages and handed over the bodies of eight more, including two Israeli children, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, to their mother, Shiri (however, the body of an unidentified Palestinian woman was initially mistakenly handed over instead). At the time of his abduction, Kfir, the youngest of all Hamas hostages, was only nine months old, and his brother, Ariel, was four years old. The Bibas children, with their bright red hair, were nicknamed "Ryzhiki" (Little Redheads) and became symbols of the Israeli hostages. In May 2025, the group released one hostage with American citizenship, Eden Alexander, as a "goodwill gesture" to the United States.
The Israeli military also rescued eight hostages during raids in the Gaza Strip. The largest such operation took place on June 8, 2024. A raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip freed four people, including Andrei Kozlov, a Russian immigrant. The IDF also recovered the bodies of 51 hostages from Gaza, including three mistakenly killed by the military in December 2023.
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