Israeli officials confirmed that Hamas will release six hostages on Saturday as the terror group seeks to expedite the handovers of the ceasefire’s first phase.
The captives expected to be freed are Tal Shoham, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu, and Hisham Al-Sayed. Their return will come on the heels of the return of four bodies on Thursday.
Here’s a look at the six living hostages Hamas said will be freed on Saturday. Two, both suffering from mental illness, have been held captive since entering Gaza on their own in 2014 and 2015.
Avera Mengistu, now 37, entered Gaza on Sept. 17, 2014. Soldiers manning security cameras spotted Mengistu but failed to stop him before he managed to cross the fence and was caught by a Hamas patrol. An Ethiopian-Israeli who lived in Ashkelon, Mengistu suffers from schizophrenia and stopped taking his medicine around the time he disappeared.
His last sign of life was in a propaganda video released by Hamas in 2023. According to the Hostage Families Forum, the Ethiopian-Israeli will have spent 3,821 days in captivity.
Hisham al Sayed, now 37, was diagnosed with acute psychotic disorder and schizophrenia and suffered from auditory hallucinations. A resident of the Bedouin village of Hura, Sayed entered Gaza through the Erez Crossing on April 20, 2015. Sayed’s last sign of life was in a Hamas propaganda video in 2022 which showed him lying in a bed with an oxygen mask and IV drip.
According to the Hostage Families Forum, Sayed will have spent 3,596 days in captivity.
Elya Cohen, now 27, was abducted from the Nova Music Festival on the morning of October 7. Cohen and his fiance, Ziv Aboud, were shot while trying to flee the attack. Aboud said they were hiding in a shelter among dead bodies when terrorists lifted Cohen out and took him to Gaza. Other hostages freed in recent weeks told Cohen’s family they saw him chained and that he gets very little food or daylight.
Tal Shoham, now 39, is a dual Israeli-Austrian national who was visiting family at Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. He was taken captive along with his wife, Adi, their two daughters ages three and eight, and three other relatives, who were all freed during the temporary ceasefire of November 2023.
Omer Wenkert, now 23, was abducted from the Nova Music Festival. Liam Or, who was released in November 2023, told the Wenkert family she was held captive together with Elya who she described as dangerously underweight. Wenkert suffers from colitis.
Omer Shem-Tov, a computer programmer, now 22, was abducted from the Nova Music Festival. The last sign of life was in a Hamas video, but little else is known about his condition.
The ongoing first phase of the ceasefire is supposed to see a total of 33 Israeli hostages freed over six weeks in exchange for up to 1,904 Arab terrorists imprisoned in Israel. The exact number will depend on how Israeli captives are alive. Hamas notified Israeli authorities in January that of the 33, eight are dead, but offered no evidence.
Since the first hostage release on Jan. 19, Hamas has freed 19 Israeli and five Thai captives in exchange for 952 imprisoned Arab terrorists.
The fate of the remaining 65 hostages will be determined by negotiations during the ceasefire’s second phase. Critics say the phased approach condemns these 65 hostages to open-ended captivity and undermines Israel’s war gains.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 73 remaining hostages, more than 30 are believed to be dead.
