Israeli and Palestinian captives and prisoners: A timeline of key events

Israeli authorities person said that determination are no remaining captives near successful Gaza aft they received the remains of constabulary serviceman Ran Gvili, fulfilling a cardinal constituent of a ceasefire woody betwixt Israel and Hamas.

The plight of Israeli and Palestinian captives has been a absorption of ceasefire talks, with hundreds of radical taken captive by Palestinian fighters during the October 7, 2023 attacks and consequent waves of detentions of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

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The instrumentality of the captives held successful Gaza became an contented of peculiar resonance successful Israel during the two-year Israel-Palestine war, causing a schism betwixt protesters who pushed for a negotiated woody to unafraid their merchandise and hardliners successful the authorities who prioritised pushing guardant with the demolition of Gaza.

Palestinians detained by Israel person been held successful prisons and detention facilities wherever rights groups person reported that torture, intersexual assault, and different terrible abuses are systematic and widespread.

Here’s a little timeline of developments regarding Palestinian and Israeli captives implicit the past respective years.

2023

October: Palestinian fighters transportation retired an onslaught connected communities crossed confederate Israel, sidesplitting astir 1,200 people, astir of them civilians, and taking 251 Israeli and overseas captives, according to Israeli figures. In the pursuing weeks, Hamas releases 2 Israeli-American captives and 2 aged captives, and Israeli forces retrieve an Israeli worker taken captive during the attack.

November: A woody is reached betwixt Israel and Hamas that volition effect successful the largest merchandise of captives until the 2025 ceasefire deal, with 81 Israeli women and children and 24 overseas captives released. The statement includes a flimsy summation successful humanitarian assistance entering Gaza, choked disconnected by Israel successful defiance of planetary law, and the merchandise of 240 Palestinian women and teenage detainees and prisoners held by Israel, galore of them being held without charge.

December: Israeli forces successful Gaza sprout and termination three Israeli captives holding a achromatic emblem and attempting to beryllium rescued, underscoring the lax rules astir the usage of unit by Israeli soldiers successful the Gaza Strip.

2024

February: Israeli forces retrieve 2 captives during a raid successful confederate Gaza arsenic protesters successful Israel telephone for a woody to bring the remaining captives home.

June: Israeli forces behaviour a raid successful the Nuseirat neighbourhood of cardinal Gaza to retrieve 4 captives, accompanied by indiscriminate bombing and attacks successful the surrounding country that termination astatine slightest 274 Palestinians.

July: A report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights finds that Israel is holding astir 9,400 Palestinians arsenic “security detainees”, often without giving them a crushed for their detention, successful facilities wherever abuses specified arsenic torture and intersexual battle are widespread.

August: The find of six dormant Israeli captives successful a Hamas passageway successful confederate Gaza sparks choler successful Israel and mounting unit connected the authorities of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a woody to unafraid the merchandise of the remaining captives. The Israeli person is accused of sabotaging negotiations connected respective occasions successful bid to proceed the war. A video is released of respective Israeli information unit members gang-raping a Palestinian detainee astatine the Sde Teiman detention installation successful Israel, notorious for maltreatment and torture.

December: United States President-elect Donald Trump says determination volition beryllium “hell to pay” if remaining captives are not released earlier his inauguration connected January 20, 2025. Israeli forces detain Doctor Hussam Abu Safia, manager of Kamal Adwan Hospital, keeping him imprisoned without complaint oregon trial. His lawyers aboriginal accidental helium is tortured successful Israeli detention, wherever helium remains contempt planetary calls for his release.

2025

January: A ceasefire woody is reached for the merchandise of 33 Israeli captives, 25 of them surviving and 8 dead, and hundreds of Palestinians detained successful Israeli prisons. Under the deal, a 2nd signifier of negotiations is expected to pb to the merchandise of the remaining captives and Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, but Netanyahu unilaterally breaks disconnected the statement and resumes the warfare aft six weeks. Hamas additionally releases 5 Thai workers who were among those taken captive by Palestinian fighters connected October 7, 2023.

February: Israel releases 600 Palestinian detainees aft a delay, portion Hamas releases Israeli-American Keith Siegel, Israeli-French Ofer Calderon, and Yarden Bibas, on with six different captives. The radical aboriginal releases six much captives, and returns the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, who were aged 4 years and 9 months respectively erstwhile kidnapped, on with their mother, Shiri Bibas, and a antheral successful his 80s named Oded Lifshitz. The destiny of the household causes anguish and choler successful Israel and the UN condemns the “abhorrent” attraction of captives and their remains by Hamas.

March: Israel breaks the ceasefire and resumes the war with a question of bombings and attacks crossed Gaza that termination astatine slightest 404 Palestinians successful the archetypal day, galore of them children.

May: Hamas hands implicit Israeli-American Edan Alexander, the past surviving US captive held successful Gaza.

October: A ceasefire statement is reached betwixt Hamas and Israel to unafraid the merchandise of the remaining captives and the remains of the deceased held successful Gaza, and Palestinian detainees and prisoners held by Israel. Israel releases the bodies of much than 100 dormant Palestinians, astir of whom are unidentified and galore showing signs of torture, and continues to regularly weaponry Gaza and restrict the travel of humanitarian aid.

November: The rights radical Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI) releases a study stating that astatine slightest 94 Palestinians person died successful Israeli detention from causes specified arsenic torture, aesculapian neglect, malnutrition, and assault. The study states that the existent fig is apt higher.

2026

January: Central Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital says it received 9 surviving Palestinian detainees released by Israel, soon aft the subject said it had recovered the assemblage of the past captive held successful the Palestinian territory.