Israel on Tuesday said the Red Cross was en route to collect four bodies from Hamas, which would bring the total number of hostages whose bodies have been returned under the terms of this week’s ceasefire agreement to eight.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel named four hostages whose bodies were returned Monday: Guy Illouz, Bipin Joshi, Daniel Peretz and Yossi Sharabi. The news has brought long-awaited closure to their families – but frustration is growing among Israelis awaiting the return of the bodies of 20 others still held in Gaza. Pressure on Hamas mounted Tuesday as Israel said it would slow aid to Gaza until the bodies were released.
Hamas was expected to release all remaining hostages, alive and dead, on Monday – though it had warned in negotiations that it would be unable to find some bodies within the 72-hour deadline it was given because of the destruction in Gaza.
Before Monday’s releases, Israel and Hamas had said that the bodies of 28 hostages remained in Gaza and named 27 of them, including a soldier killed 14 years ago. Tamir Nimrodi, an Israeli soldier and German dual national captured on Oct. 7, 2023, was not among the 20 living hostages released on Monday, but his death has not been publicly confirmed.
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Of those whose deaths have been confirmed, some were killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and their bodies taken into Gaza, while others were killed in captivity, according to the Israeli government.
Here’s what to know about the deceased hostages whose bodies have been returned, and those who remain in Gaza. Their ages, where available, are correct at the time of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
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Guy Illouz, 26
Illouz was at the Nova music festival with friends when Hamas attacked. His friends were shot dead while Illouz was severely wounded and taken captive, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents many hostages’ relatives. Maya Regev, a hostage freed in November 2023, said she and Illouz were treated together in a Gazan hospital where he died of his wounds. Illouz’s father, Michel, told The Washington Post last week that he would prepare to bury his son, adding: “I’m so happy for the families of the hostages that are alive, that they will be able to recover, and I’m sad about my journey.”
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Bipin Joshi
Joshi, from Nepal, was among a group of Nepali students studying agriculture at Kibbutz Alumim, near Gaza, when the Hamas attack began, according to the Associated Press. In October, Joshi’s family released footage believed to have been filmed in November 2023 that showed him in captivity. According to the hostages forum, it was the only sign of life his family had received since his abduction.
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Daniel Peretz, 22
Peretz was a captain in the Israeli army’s 7th Armored Brigade. The army said in early 2024 that he was killed on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Yossi Sharabi, 53
Sharabi and younger brother Eli were taken captive from Kibbutz Beeri, where more than 130 people died in Hamas’s attacks. Yossi’s wife and their two daughters survived the attacks, the hostages forum said. Eli, whose wife and daughters were killed in the attacks, was released during a previous ceasefire earlier this year. The Israeli military later said that Yossi was probably killed when an Israeli strike hit a building adjacent to where he and two other hostages were being held, according to Israeli media reports.
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Tamir Adar, 38
Adar was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he fought alongside the kibbutz’s security squad during the Hamas attacks, according to the hostages forum. His wife and two young children survived by hiding in the safe room of their home, the forum said. The Israeli government later confirmed that he was killed on Oct. 7, 2023.
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Muhammad al-Atrash, 39
Atrash, a sergeant major in the Israeli military, was killed in fighting on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body taken into Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
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Sahar Baruch
Baruch was abducted from Kibbutz Beeri. According to the hostages forum, he returned from an around-the-world trip to study electrical engineering. In January 2024, Israel’s military said he was killed during a rescue attempt the previous month, adding: “At this point, it is not possible to determine the circumstances of Sahar’s death, and it is not known whether he was murdered by Hamas or killed by our forces’ fire.”
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Uriel Baruch, 34
The husband and father of two was one of the first to escape the Nova music festival after the Hamas attack began, the hostages forum said. Baruch’s family heard him telling a friend to drive faster, saying, “They are chasing us,” before the call was disconnected, the forum said. The Israeli government said he died in captivity, while the Times of Israel reported that his family was told that he was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body taken into Gaza.
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Itay Chen, 19
Chen is one of two Israeli soldiers and American dual nationals whose bodies are still being held in Gaza. He was based at a military outpost less than a mile from the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023. Five months later, Israel confirmed he was killed during the attack, and his body was taken into Gaza. Chen’s family has not held a funeral; his father previously told The Post that his body deserves the dignity of a proper burial and that the family deserves a physical place where they can mourn.
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Amiram Cooper, 84
Cooper and his wife, Nurit, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, which he helped found in the 1950s. Nurit was freed just over two weeks after the Oct. 7 attacks, but the Israeli military said in June last year that Amiram was killed in captivity.
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Ronen Engel, 54
Engel and his family were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, according to the hostages forum. His wife, Karina Engel-Barret, and two daughters, Mika and Yuval, were freed as part of a ceasefire deal in November 2023; the Israeli government informed them days later that Ronen had been killed in captivity.
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Meny Godard, 73
Godard and his wife, Ayelet, were both killed in their home in Kibbutz Beeri; Godard’s body was taken to Gaza. The hostage forum described him as “an excellent soccer player” and a lifeguard. The Israeli military said Godard was killed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.
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Ran Gvili, 24
Gvili, a police officer in the Negev region, was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza, Israeli authorities said.
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Tal Haimi, 41
Haimi was the deputy security coordinator of Nir Yitzhak, a kibbutz near Gaza where he lived with his wife, Ella, and their three children. Haimi was killed fighting the militants on Oct. 7, 2023. His family – including 16-month-old Lotan, who was born after his death – has now moved back to the kibbutz. After learning of Haimi’s death, the family held a funeral for him at a temporary grave in another kibbutz. But Ella told The Post that she wants him “to be brought back and buried here. Only then can we say that we are beginning a new life.”
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Asaf Hamami, 40
Hamami, a colonel and commander in the Israeli military, was killed during fighting on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was taken into Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
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Inbar Hayman, 27
Hayman, an art student, was abducted from the Nova music festival and is the only female hostage still in Gaza. The Israeli government says she was killed in Hamas captivity.
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Eitan Levi, 52
Levi, a taxi driver, was killed at the Nova music festival, and his body was taken to Gaza, the Israeli government said.
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Eliyahu Margalit, 75
Margalit was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, near the stables in Kibbutz Nir Oz, where he lived with his wife, Dafna, and had worked raising cattle. Dafna’s daughter, Nili, was taken captive during the attack and released in November 2023. Dafna has since returned to the kibbutz. “Many people ask me, ‘Why would you go back there?’” she told The Post. She said she wanted to move back as quickly as possible, adding: “I realized this would be my last home.”
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Joshua Loitu Mollel, 21
Mollel, a student from Tanzania, was taken captive from Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The Israeli government said he was killed in captivity; his family was informed of his death in December 2023.
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Omer Neutra, 21
Neutra, the second American Israeli dual national whose body is being held, was a tank commander and trainer in the Israeli military. He was raised in Plainview, Long Island. The Israeli military said in December 2024 that he was killed on the day of the attacks and that his body was taken into Gaza.
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Sonthaya Oakkharasri, 30
Sonthaya, a Thai agricultural worker, had worked in Israel for five years, his mother told Thai newspaper the National, after his death was confirmed last year. According to the Israeli government, he was killed on Oct. 7, 2023 – one of several dozen Thai nationals killed during the attack.
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Dror Or, 48
Or lived in Kibbutz Beeri with his family. His wife was killed in the Hamas attacks, while two of their three children were taken hostage and released the following month, the Times of Israel reported. Or was initially believed to be alive in captivity, but the Israeli military later confirmed that he was killed on Oct. 7, 2023, and that his body was taken to Gaza.
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Daniel Oz
Oz, a sergeant in the Israeli army’s 7th Armored Brigade, was killed in fighting on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was taken into Gaza.
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Sudthisak Rinthalak
Sudthisak, another Thai national, worked at Kibbutz Beeri. Last year, the Israeli government confirmed that he was killed during the Oct. 7 attack. His father told Thailand’s Nation newspaper last year that he hoped his son’s remains would be returned so that the family could carry out funeral rites.
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Lior Rudaeff, 61
Rudaeff, a father and grandfather, was born in Argentina and lived in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, according to the hostages forum. His family was told in May 2024 that he died during the Hamas attack.
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Arie Zalmanowicz, 85
Zalmanowicz was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed in captivity, the Israeli government said. He died after not receiving medications he relied upon and barely eating, the hostages forum said, citing remarks by freed hostages.
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Hadar Goldin (body held since 2014)
Goldin, an Israeli soldier, was killed in 2014 during an Israeli military operation in Gaza, where his body remained.
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Lior Soroka, Heidi Levine, Shira Rubin and Joanna Slater contributed to this report.