Israeli authorities are making preparations to receive dozens of hostages who have been held anonymously by Hamas for more than a year in Gaza, not knowing whether they will return hungry, tortured or dead.
33 hostages are expected to be freed in the first phase of a cease-fire agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, the first of its kind since the week-long ceasefire began. Some families have caught glimpses of their loved ones in the hostage videos directed by Hamas. But it is not clear in what condition the hostages will return.
In Israeli hospitals, health officials are setting up isolation areas where hostages can begin their recovery in private. The Israeli Ministry of Health has written a comprehensive protocol for their mental and physical treatment. There is some concern that they may be malnourished.
“Those who were released at that time were already well-nourished,” said Hagar Mizrahi, the head of Israel’s health ministry, about the hostages released during the 2023 peacetime. Think of their situation now, after 400 more days. We are very concerned about this.”
After Hamas led the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel, killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 others, 105 Israeli and foreign hostages were released in the November agreement of that year. A few were later released from Israeli military operations, and Israeli soldiers recovered the bodies of many others.
But about 98 hostages remain in Gaza, many of whom are presumed dead by Israeli authorities.
Of the women, old men and other hostages who returned under the first phase of this ceasefire agreement, many are believed to have been kept in the tunnels of the terrorist group in Gaza, conditions that may leave physical and mental scars.
Health officials have been reviewing all intelligence – including videos of the hostages – in an effort to determine the condition of the hostages, said Dr. Mizrahi. A committee of officials including Dr. Mizrahi found that some were killed.
Israeli officials say the process of release will be very similar to that during the ceasefire, when 105 hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
In that exchange, Hamas fighters handed over hostages – mostly women and children – to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Red Cross workers transported the hostages from Gaza in a marked ambulance to Egypt before taking them to Israel.
When you cross the border, Israeli intelligence agents confirm your identity. At the same time, Israeli security officials released a group of Palestinian women and youth prisoners.
In this case, the Israeli authorities have established three reception centers for hostages near the Gaza border, according to an Israeli military official. Those will be monitored by Israeli soldiers, as well as doctors and psychiatrists, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with the process.
From there, the hostages will be taken to Israeli hospitals that were preparing to take care of them, said the official.
The 105 hostages released in November 2023 returned home after about 50 days of captivity in Gaza. They came to a land that had changed a lot; others learned at the time about their friends and loved ones who had been killed in the attacks led by Hamas.
At first, officials intended to integrate the returning hostages as quickly as possible, according to Dr. Mizrahi. Now, health authorities recommend that released hostages stay in the hospital for at least four days, if not more, he said.
For now, family members of the hostages – some of whom survived the captivity – can only wait.
“In the past, we saw the Red Cross transferring hostages, and some of them were running to their relatives, hugging them,” said Einat Yehene, a psychologist who works with the Hostage Families Forum, a public advocacy group. “It’s not going to be easy and the same this time, given the physical and emotional conditions we’re expecting.”
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