After nearly seven weeks in captivity, hostages abducted by Hamas and other groups during the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel have been released as part of a deal that paused the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The first group of 13 Israeli hostages — all women and children — were handed over to Israeli officials on Friday, joining five others released or rescued earlier in the fighting. Twelve of the newly released people were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, which had about 75 peopletaken hostage during the initial attack. One of the 13 was taken from Kibbutz Nirim.
In addition, 10 Thais and one Filipino were also released.
Here’s what we know about the newly released Israelis.
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 her parents, Ruth and Abraham Munder, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border, when the Oct. 7 assault took place.
Ruth and Abraham’s son, Roee, 50, was killed during the attack. Ohad had his ninth birthday in captivity on Oct. 23. Abraham, 78, is believed to still be held in Gaza.
Ruth is a retired hairdresser and seamstress, according to Kibbutz Nir Oz. 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 Oct. 7 between two gunmen on a motorcycle being driven into Gaza. She was kidnapped from her safe room in Kibbutz Nir Oz after her husband, Sa’id Moshe, was killed during the Hamas assault.
Naama Ben-Dvora, Ms. Moshe’s niece, told an Israeli broadcaster that she felt “a sense of very, very great relief, and happiness and hope, of course, that every one of them will come home.”
Yaffa Adar, 85
Ms. Adar helped found Kibbutz Nir Oz in the 1950s, according to her family. She was kidnapped with her grandson Tamir Adar, 38, who remains in captivity.
A photograph of Ms. Adar’s abduction became one of the defining images of the Oct. 7 attack. She was photographed wrapped in a pink blanket as she sat in a golf cart that was driven by militants into Gaza.
Hanna Katzir, 76
Ms. Katzir helped oversee child care in Kibbutz Nir Oz for many years, according to a niece, Dalit Katzenellenbogen, who lives in Tel Aviv. A grandmother of six who walks with a walker, she was abducted to Gaza on Oct. 7 with her son, Elad Katzir, 47. Her husband, Rami, was killed in the assault on Oct. 7.
Islamic Jihad, an armed Palestinian group that helped lead the assault, had recently claimed that Ms. Katzir had died in captivity and said it would provide evidence, which never materialized.
Hanna Peri, 79
Ms. Peri, one of five people who were captured on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nirim, immigrated to Israel from South Africa in the 1960s and has lived at Nirim ever since. Ms. Peri worked at the community’s grocery store. One of her three children was killed in the assault on Oct. 7 and another was kidnapped to Gaza and is believed to still be a captive there.
Ms. Peri has diabetes, suffers severe vision loss in one of her eyes, and loves gardening and taking tai chi classes, according to the Hostages Family Forum, a nongovernmental organization advocating for the release of the hostages and supporting their families.
Margalit Moses, 77
A nature lover and a 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 said, she loves to hike. She traveled to Norway in the summer and was planning to visit Mozambique this winter.
Doron Katz Asher, 34; Raz Asher, 4; Aviv Asher, 2
Ms. Katz Asher was abducted with her two young daughters, Raz and Aviv Asher, and her mother, Efrat Katz, 67, while they were staying at her mother’s home in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Ms. Katz Asher’s husband, Yoni Asher, 37, last heard from her on Oct. 7, when she called him to say that there were terrorists inside her mother’s home.
Later, he spotted all four of his relatives in a video posted on social media, which showed them being driven through Gaza on the back of a pickup truck. Tracking his wife’s phone remotely, Mr. Asher saw that the device was taken to Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza.
Efrat Katz has not been released.
