After nearly seven weeks in captivity, 13 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other groups during the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel were released Friday. This was part of an agreement that halted fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The 13 – all women and children – were returned to Israel. Five other hostages had already been released or rescued at the start of the fighting.
Twelve of the newly released were among the approximately 75 people who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th. One of the 13 people was among those kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim.
In addition, ten Thais and one Filipino were released, but details of their identities were not disclosed.
Here’s what we know about the Israelis released on Friday.
Keren Munder, 54; Ohad Munder Zichri, 9; Ruth Munder, 78
Keren Munder and her son Ohad Munder Zichri, residents of Kfar Saba in central Israel, were visiting their parents Ruth and Abraham Munder at Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border when the attack occurred on October 7.
Ruth and Abraham’s son Roee, 50, was killed in the attack. Ohad celebrated his ninth birthday in captivity on October 23rd. Abraham, 78, is believed to still be held in Gaza.
According to Kibbutz Nir Oz, Ruth is a retired hairdresser and seamstress. Keren teaches children with special needs.
Danielle Aloni; Amelia Aloni, 5
Danielle Aloni and her daughter Amelia were taken hostage while visiting Ms. Aloni’s sister Sharon Cunio, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
They were kidnapped along with Sharon, her husband David Cunio and their twins Emma and Yuli (3).
The last their family heard from them was a message on WhatsApp that read: “Help, we’re dying.”
Hamas later distributed a video of Ms. Aloni in captivity.
Adina Moshe, 72
Ms Moshe was last seen on October 7 between two armed men on a motorcycle heading to Gaza. She was kidnapped from her safe room on Kibbutz Nir Oz after her husband Sa’id Moshe was killed during the Hamas attack.
Naama Ben-Dvora, Ms Moshe’s niece, told an Israeli broadcaster she felt “a feeling of very, very great relief and of course happiness and hope that each of them will come home.”
Yaffa Adar, 85
According to her family, Ms. Adar helped found Kibbutz Nir Oz in the 1950s. She was kidnapped along with her grandson Tamir Adar, 38, who remains in captivity.
A photo of Ms. Adar’s abduction became one of the defining images of the attack. She was photographed wrapped in a pink blanket as she sat in a golf cart driven by militants to Gaza.
Hanna Katzir, 76
According to a niece, Dalit Katzenellenbogen, who lives in Tel Aviv, Ms. Katzir helped oversee child care at Kibbutz Nir Oz for many years. A grandmother of six who uses a walker, she was married to her son Elad Katzir, 47. kidnapped to Gaza. Her husband Rami was killed.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group that led the attack, had recently claimed that Ms. Katzir had died in captivity and said it would provide evidence, but this never materialized.
Hanna Peri, 79
Ms. Peri, one of five people captured at Kibbutz Nirim on October 7, emigrated to Israel from South Africa in the 1960s and has lived in Nirim ever since. Ms. Peri worked in the community grocery store. One of her three children was killed in the October 7 attack and another was kidnapped to Gaza and is believed to still be held captive there.
According to the Hostages Family Forum, a non-governmental organization working to free the hostages and support their families, Ms. Peri has diabetes and severe vision loss in one eye. She loves gardening and taking Tai Chi classes.
Margaret Moses, 77
A nature lover and cancer survivor, Ms. Moses, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, also suffers from diabetes and other chronic health problems, according to the Hostages Family Forum.
Despite her poor health, the forum says she loves hiking. As a German dual citizen, she traveled to Norway in the summer and planned to visit Mozambique this winter.
Doron Katz Asher, 34; Raz Asher, 4; Aviv Asher, 2
Ms. Katz Asher was kidnapped with her two young daughters, Raz and Aviv Asher, and her mother, Efrat Katz, 67, while they were staying at her mother’s house on Kibbutz Nir Oz. The Katz Ashers have dual German citizenship.
Ms Katz Asher’s husband, Yoni Asher, 37, last heard from her on October 7, when she called him and told him there were terrorists at her mother’s house.
He later spotted all four of his relatives in a video posted on social media that showed them being driven through Gaza in the back of a pickup truck. Mr Asher tracked his wife’s phone from a distance and saw that the device was being taken to Khan Younis, a town in the southern Gaza Strip.
Efrat Katz was not released.