Seventeen hostages held in the Gaza Strip for seven weeks were freed again on Sunday night by Hamas. The Palestinian Islamist movement conceded to this new exchange for 39 Palestinian prisoners, thanks to the 4-day truce decreed with Israel.
The releases bring to 63 the number of hostages freed out of the approximately 240 held in Gaza since their abduction on 7 October. The truce agreement, which is due to end on Monday, provides for the release of 50 women and children hostages, in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners.
Among the hostages who arrived in Israel on Sunday were nine children, four women and one Russian-Israeli.
An American girl, a Russian man
Abigail, 4 years old
A 4-year-old girl with U.S. citizenship, Abigail, was released. His release was confirmed by Joe Biden himself, on the sidelines of a trip to Massachusetts. "She's free and she's in Israel," Trump said of Abigail, who celebrated four years in captivity this week and was orphaned after Hamas attackers killed her father and mother on Oct. 7. "She saw her parents killed in front of her," White House adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN. His two older brothers survived by hiding in a closet.
Ron Krivoy (25 years old)
Russian-Israeli Ron Krivoy, 25, a sound technician at the Tribe of Nova music festival, initially managed to escape the attackers and hide in a ditch, according to his sister Julia, who testified in Israeli media. But by noon, a voice was answering in Arabic from his phone.
The youngest of three children, Ron Krivoy was born in Israel. His father told the press that he had already survived a fall into a sewer and two car accidents. According to Hamas, he was released outside the truce agreement, "in response to the efforts" of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his "support for the Palestinian cause."
12 other Israeli citizens
Elma Avraham (84 years old)
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There's a terrorist in my house!" Elma Avraham, 84, was on the phone with a neighbor on Oct. 7 when gunmen burst into her home on Kibbutz Nahal Oz. According to her son, with whom she had also spoken in the morning, the octogenarian had not been able to lock the door to the secure room of his house. Uri later received a photo of his mother being taken away on a motorcycle by armed fighters along with another hostage. Elma's second son, who also lives in Nahal Oz, survived the attack.
The hostage, who was among the oldest Hamas detainees, was taken directly to the hospital to assess his condition.
Aviva Siegel (62 years old)
Aviva Siegel, 62, was abducted from her home on Kibbutz Kfar Aza, along with her American husband Keith, 64, who is still being held hostage. At the time of the attack, they grabbed their phones and took refuge in their pajamas in their secure room, thinking it was yet another rocket scare, according to Yuval Baron, the couple's son-in-law, interviewed by the Guardian. They were seen shortly afterwards escorted by fighters along with other hostages.
A South African by birth, Aviva Siegel immigrated to Israel at the age of eight. She teaches kindergarten. The couple has four children and five grandchildren.
Hagar Brodetz (40) and her three children
Avihai Brodetz was trying to defend Kibbutz Kfar Aza when his wife Hagar, 40, and their three children were abducted, along with their neighbours' daughter, Abigail, who had taken refuge in their home. After a few days without news, he learned that all of them had survived. Ofri, the eldest child, was 10 years old in captivity. Her two younger brothers, Yuval and Oria, are 8 and 4 years old.
Chen Almog-Goldstein (48) and his three children
Chen Almog-Goldstein, a 48-year-old social worker, was abducted along with three of her four children, 17-year-old Agam, <>-year-old Gal and nine-year-old Tal, from their home in Kfar Aza. The father of the family, Nadav Goldstein, and Yam, the eldest daughter, were killed in the attack.
They are members of the family of Doron Almog, a former high-ranking army officer and current chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a paragovernmental organization in charge of immigration to the country of Diaspora Jews.
The Almog family had already been plunged into mourning in October 2003, losing five of its members in a suicide bombing at the Maxim restaurant in Haifa, claimed by Islamic Jihad.
Ela (eight years old) and her sister Dafna (15 years old)
Eight-year-old Ela and her older sister Dafna, 15, were abducted from their father Noam Elyakim's home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The day after the attack, their mother Maayan Zin discovered on WhatsApp "a picture of Dafna sitting in her pajamas on a mattress in Gaza with the comment: 'Prayer clothes would be better.'" The only proof of life to hold on to.
The bodies of the girls' father, his partner Dikla and Tomer, her son, were found riddled with bullets on a vacant lot. Before he was shot, 17-year-old Tomer was used by his tormentors to go door-to-door and lure his neighbors holed up in the shelters in Hebrew, according to footage released by Hamas. Ela and Dafna also have Hungarian citizenship, according to the country's press.
3 Thai citizens
Three Thais, also outside the swap agreement, were released.