The 20 living Israeli hostages released by Hamas, in pictures

Hamas has released all 20 remaining Israeli living hostages as part of a ceasefire deal pausing two years of war that has devastated the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The releases came as Donald Trump arrived in Israel to celebrate the US-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, an agreement that he declared had effectively ended the war and opened the door to building a durable peace in the Middle East.

In Gaza, Palestinian prisoners and detainees freed by Israel as part of the accord arrived in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, their heads shaved and some looking very thin.

Here The i Paper looks at who the 20 released hostages are:

Ziv and Gali Berman

The 28-year-old twin brothers were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza.

The family has heard from hostages who returned in a previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately. Liran Berman, their elder brother, said it was the longest the two had ever spent apart.

Ariel and David Cunio

Ariel, 28, and his brother, David, 35, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz. They were taken captive alongside David’s wife, Sharon, and their three-year-old twin daughters, Yuli and Emma, who were all released under the ceasefire in November 2023. Ariel’s partner, Yehoud, was also taken hostage before being released in January.

Matan Angrest

Matan Angrest, a 22-year-old Israeli soldier, was taken from his tank at his military base in southern Israel. On Tuesday’s two-year anniversary of the October 7 attack, his mother, Anat Angrest, addressed her son at a rally. “I know you’re in pain, and I can’t hug you. I hear you whisper, ‘Come for me, Mom,’ and I can’t protect you,” she said.

Eitan Horn

The 39-year-old was visiting his brother, Iair, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, when the pair were kidnapped. Iair was released in February.

Matan Zangauker

Matan, 25, and his partner, Illana Gritzewsky, were kidnapped from the same kibbutz. Ms Gritzewsky, a Mexican national, was released in November 2023.

Omri Miran

Omri Miran was kidnapped from the Kibbutz Nahal Oz. During the attack, militants held his family, including his two daughters, aged two and six months, hostage in the kitchen of a neighbour’s house and then broadcast it on Facebook Live. Lishay Miran-Lavi, Miran’s wife, said their younger daughter knew “daddy Omri” only through photos and videos, and did not really understand what a father was.

Segev Kalfon

Segev Kalfon, 27, who worked at his family’s bakery, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival. Mr Kalfon’s family has focused on religious rituals in their fight for his release, including travelling to the grave of prominent rabbis and dedicating a Torah scroll in his honour.

Bar Kupershtein

Bar Kupershtein, 23, was working at the Nova festival as a security guard when he was abducted. Witnesses said Kupershtein stayed at the festival to try to provide first aid to people.

Mr Kupershtein’s aunt, Ora Rubinstein, told reporters that his father, who was severely injured in an accident several years ago, worked with a physical therapist to regain the ability to speak, so he could meet politicians to advocate for his son’s release.

Yosef-Chaim Ohana

Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, where he was working as a bartender. Witnesses saw him attempting to help others escape before he was kidnapped. He is the eldest of three brothers, one of whom previously died from an illness.

Avinatan Or

Avinatan Or, 32, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival along with his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, who was rescued by Israeli forces in June 2024. On October 7, 2023, Hamas released a video of the pair that has become one of the most well-known videos from that day. It showed Argamani on an all-terrain vehicle crying, “Don’t kill me!” and reaching out to Or, who is being marched away from her by militants. Or worked in tech in Tel Aviv before his abduction.

Evyatar David

Evyatar David, 24, was taken hostage at the Nova music festival along with his childhood friend Guy Gilboa-Dalal. In August, Hamas released a video of Mr David, emaciated and pale, and claimed that he was digging his own grave.

Maxim Herkin

Maxim Herkin, 37, was abducted from Nova, which was the first festival he had ever attended, according to his family. Harkin was born in Ukraine and moved to Israel with his family. He has a three-year-old daughter and was the primary provider for his mother and 11-year-old brother. Just before he was taken, his mother said he sent a final text message that said: “I love you.”

Rom Braslavski

Rom Braslavski, 21, was working as a security guard at the Nova festival. He attempted to help festivalgoers flee and was wounded in both hands before being kidnapped, witnesses said. In August, the Islamic Jihad militant group released a video of a skeletal Braslavski sobbing and pleading for his life, adding that injuries to his foot prevented him from standing. His father, Ofir, said Rom was usually a strong, happy-go-lucky kid, and that video was the first time he had seen his son cry.

Nimrod Cohen

Nimrod Cohen, 21, was taken from a tank near the Gaza border where he was stationed as a soldier. His family has stopped celebrating holidays since the attack. “We don’t gather as a family, because it reminds us how much he is missing,” his mother, Viki Cohen, said.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal

Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, was among those abducted from the Nova music festival, while his brother managed to escape. In the past year, he appeared in two videos released by Hamas. In one, he appeared pleading for his freedom in a vehicle while he watched three other hostages being released to the Red Cross.

Elkana Bohbot

Elkana Bohbot, 36, was kidnapped from the Nova music festival.

His son, Reem, made binoculars in kindergarten which he often used to go out and “look for his father”, according to Bohbot’s mother, Ruhama.

Eitan Mor

Eitan Mor, 25, was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival, where he helped evacuate people who had been injured in the attack from the site.

Alon Ohel

Alon Ohel, 24, who also has German and Serbian citizenship, was kidnapped at the Nova music festival from a mobile bomb shelter. Ohel has shrapnel in his eye from the attack on the bomb shelter and his family is worried he may be partially blind.

Of the 48 hostages who were still held in Gaza at the time the new ceasefire deal was struck, 26 have been confirmed dead by Israel. The status of two others, Bipin Joshi, 24, a Nepalese agricultural student, and Tamir Nimrodi, was unknown.

Hamas has yet to hand over the remains of the deceased hostages, with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum saying it has been told that only four will be returned today.

“This represents a blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas,” the group said in a statement. “The mediators must enforce the agreement’s terms and ensure Hamas pays a price for this violation,” the statement added, urging the Israeli government to take “immediate action to rectify this grave injustice”.

The ceasefire agreement published by Israeli media stated that the remains of all of the deceased hostages should have been handed over by 12pm local time (9am GMT) on Monday.

But the agreement acknowledged that Hamas and other Palestinian factions may not have been able to locate all of the missing hostages within that timeframe.

Speaking today to Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, Donald Trump said the “long and painful nightmare is finally over” for Israelis and Palestinians.

Since the start of the war, several bodies of deceased hostages have been returned by Hamas. The Israeli military has also recovered the bodies of dozens of hostages. Some of these hostages were killed on October 7, 2023, and their bodies taken into Gaza. Others died in captivity.

Additional reporting by AP