Israeli authorities are making preparations to receive dozens of hostages held incommunicado by Hamas for more than a year in Gaza, without knowing whether they will return hungry, traumatized or dead.
Thirty-three hostages are supposed to be released in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, in the first major release of its kind since a week-long ceasefire after seven weeks of war. Some families were able to catch a glimpse of their loved ones in videos made by Hamas of the hostages. But it is not at all clear what condition the prisoners will be returned in.
In Israeli hospitals, health officials are preparing isolated areas where hostages can begin their recovery period in privacy. The Israeli Ministry of Health has formulated a comprehensive protocol for their psychological and physical treatment. There are particular concerns that they may suffer from severe malnutrition.
“Those who were released at that time were already suffering from malnutrition,” Hagar Mizrahi, a senior official at the Israeli Ministry of Health, said of the hostages released during the 2023 truce. Imagine their situation now, after an additional 400 days. “We are very concerned about this.”
After Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and capturing about 250 others, about 105 Israeli and foreign hostages were released in the week-long truce in November of that year. A small number of them were later released during Israeli military operations, and Israeli soldiers recovered the bodies of dozens of others.
But there are still about 98 hostages in Gaza, and Israeli authorities assume dozens of them are dead.
Among the women, older men and other hostages returned under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, many are believed to have been held captive in the armed group’s tunnels in Gaza, conditions that are likely to leave physical and psychological scars.
Dr. Mizrahi said health officials were scrutinizing every piece of intelligence — including hostage videos — in an attempt to get a sense of the hostages’ situation. A committee of officials including Dr. Mizrahi determined that some had been killed.
Israeli officials say the logistics of the release will be largely similar to those undertaken during the previous ceasefire, when 105 hostages were released in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.
In this exchange, Hamas fighters handed over the hostages – mostly women and children – to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Red Cross workers transported the prisoners from Gaza in a marked ambulance to Egypt before transporting them to Israel.
At the border crossing, Israeli intelligence agents verified their identities. Around the same time, Israeli security officials released a select group of Palestinian prisoners and teenagers.
This time, the Israeli authorities established three reception points to receive hostages along the Gaza border, according to an Israeli military official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with protocol, said that these would be Israeli soldiers, in addition to doctors and psychologists.
The official said that from there the hostages will be transferred to Israeli hospitals that are preparing to care for them.
The 105 hostages released in November 2023 returned home after approximately 50 days of captivity in Gaza. They arrived in a country that had changed radically; Some only learned later about the friends and loved ones killed in the Hamas-led attack.
Initially, officials aimed to reintegrate the returned hostages as quickly as possible, according to Dr. Mizrahi. She added that health authorities now recommend that released hostages remain in hospital for at least four days, if not longer.
Meanwhile, the hostages’ family members – some of whom escaped captivity – can only wait.
“Last time, we saw the Red Cross transporting hostages, and some of them were running to their relatives and hugging them,” said Einat Yahan, a psychologist who works with the Hostage Families Forum, an advocacy group. “Things will not be as easy this time, given the physical and emotional conditions we expect.”