Their portraits are everywhere in Israel. They adorn the placards of the daily demonstrations organized in their support. They are broadcast on a loop on television channels. While the world is outraged by the humanitarian catastrophe that is befalling the Gaza Strip – the death toll has been exceeded 40,000, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry – Israel, with these images, lives in the trauma of October 7, 2023, the most terrible attack in its history ever suffered on its territory, during which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 captured.
Kidnapped person (including remains of persons killed)
Person killed during the attack of October 7, 2023
Hamas attack, between October 7 and 9, 2023
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Nir Oz
The kibbutz, established in 1955 less than 3 kilometres from the Gaza Strip, had some 400 inhabitants. About a quarter of them were murdered, kidnapped or seriously injured in the attack on 7 October.
Thirty-six residents of Nir Oz are still being held in Gaza: among them, around twenty whose deaths have been confirmed by the Israeli authorities and the last two children still in captivity, Ariel and Kfir Bibas, whose deaths were announced on November 29 by Hamas following an Israeli bombing in Khan Younis, without being confirmed by Israel.
New Festival
The electronic music festival was held near Kibbutz Reim and was still going strong on Saturday morning, October 7, 2023, when Hamas commandos entered Israeli territory. About 3,500 people were participating. 364 of them were murdered – more than a quarter of the total victims – and more than forty were kidnapped. Israel has yet to secure the release of eighteen hostages taken from the festival grounds, as well as the return of the remains of several participants who died on October 7 or during their captivity. Nine of them were released, five during the temporary truce in late November 2023 and four during operations by the Israeli army.
Plant
In this kibbutz of 1,100 inhabitants, which was celebrating its 77the anniversary the day before the Hamas attack, there were many left-wing women and men committed to Palestinian rights. On October 7, 2023, one in ten residents was killed and more than thirty people were kidnapped. As of September 3, families were awaiting the return of three of them, as well as the restitution of several remains.
Nahal Oz Base
Located less than a kilometer from the Gaza border, near the Nahal Oz kibbutz, the base housed Border Defense Corps Unit 414, a border patrol unit composed primarily of women. At least three months before the Hamas attack, these female soldiers had reported unusual events on the Gaza border, but this was not taken into account by intelligence officials. During the October 7 attack, fifteen of them were killed, and six were taken hostage; five are still being held, along with two kibbutz residents.
Kfar Aza
Founded in 1951, this kibbutz had 700 inhabitants. During the attack on October 7, Hamas men killed at least 51 people, and took hostage about 20 inhabitants, mainly women, children and elderly people. On December 15, two hostages from Kfar Aza were mistakenly killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, as well as a farm worker kidnapped in the kibbutz of Nir Am. Five people are still hostages in Gaza.
Sderot
This border town, located just 1 km from the northern Gaza Strip, had been under threat from Hamas rockets for years. On October 7, Hamas fighters entered the town, killing many civilians, including the 15 passengers of a tourist minibus, retirees on their way to the Dead Sea, before attacking the local police station. No one was abducted and taken to Gaza.
Of the approximately 34,000 people who lived in the city before the Hamas attack, only a few thousand remain.
Thai workers
Thailand is the second largest country among the hostages still held by Hamas, with eight nationals. Thai migrant workers represent the largest contingent of foreign agricultural workers in Israel: before the Hamas attack, some 30,000 were employed on farms and kibbutzim, including 5,000 around the Gaza Strip. They have replaced the Palestinian workforce, whose work permits have been restricted for the past two decades.
Thirty-nine Thai nationals were killed in the October 7 attack, and around 30 were kidnapped: 23 of them were released during the temporary truce in November 2023.
Other Thai workers abducted in territories bordering the Gaza Strip (exact location unknown)
Israeli soldiers
According to an Israeli army count, at least 306 soldiers on duty were killed in the Hamas attack between October 7 and 9, 2023. Twenty soldiers and their remains were taken to the Gaza Strip. Of the soldiers excluded from the hostage negotiations between Hamas and the State of Israel, fourteen are still there (including 5 female soldiers from Nahal Oz).
Other serving soldiers abducted in territories bordering the Gaza Strip (exact location unknown)
Sources : oct7map.com ; collectif7octobre.org ; Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ; OpenstreetMap ; Haaretz, The World
An integral part of the Hamas attack, the hostage-taking of October 7, 2023 remains at the heart of Israeli political life. Sunday 1is In September, the Israeli army announced that it had recovered the remains of six of these hostages in the southern Gaza Strip, killed in ” a bullet in the back of the head”according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was echoing the findings of the Israeli Health Ministry, which performed autopsies on the bodies. Hamas’ chief negotiator Khalil Al-Hayya said that a “bombing” Israeli forces were behind their deaths. This discovery has sparked strong emotion among the hostages’ families, who are pressuring the government to obtain the release of their loved ones in exchange for a truce in Gaza. On Monday, September 2, the head of the Histadrut, the powerful Israeli trade union, even called on Israelis to go on general strike to demand an agreement on the release of the hostages. 101 people, a third of whom are considered dead, are still being held in Gaza.
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In exchange for the Israeli hostages, Hamas is demanding the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners – including senior figures such as Fatah member Marwan Barghouti, one of Palestine’s most popular politicians – the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, a lasting ceasefire and the reconstruction of the enclave – some 70% destroyed, according to the UN.
Among the sticking points between Israel and Hamas, there is one that is particularly salient: the Philadelphia Corridor, the strip of land that runs along the 14 kilometers of the common border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. The Israeli army took control of it at the end of May, against all opinions, particularly those of Egypt and the United States, for whom maintaining it constituted a potential red line. Hamas now refuses to engage in negotiations if the Israeli army remains based along the corridor.
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