After nearly seven weeks in captivity, 13 Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas and other groups during the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel were released on Friday as part of a deal that paused the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
The 13 — all women and children — were returned to Israel. Five other hostages had been released or rescued earlier in the fighting.
Twelve of those newly released were among the roughly 75 people who had been kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7. One of the 13 was among those taken from Kibbutz Nirim.
In addition, 10 Thais and one Filipino were freed, but details about their identities have not been released.
Here’s what we know about the Israelis released on Friday.
Keren Munder, 54; Ohad Munder Zichri, 9; Ruth Munder, 78
Keren Munder and her son, Ohad Munder Zichri, residents of Kfar Saba in central Israel, were visiting her parents, Ruth and Abraham Munder, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border, when the Oct. 7 assault took place.
Ruth and Abraham’s son, Roee, 50, was killed during the attack. Ohad had his ninth birthday in captivity on Oct. 23. Abraham, 78, is believed to still be held in Gaza.
Ruth is a retired hairdresser and seamstress, according to Kibbutz Nir Oz. Keren teaches children with special needs.
Danielle Aloni; Amelia Aloni, 5
Danielle Aloni and her daughter Amelia were taken hostage while visiting Ms. Aloni’s sister, Sharon Cunio, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz.
They were kidnapped along with Sharon, her husband, David Cunio, and their twins, Emma and Yuli, 3.
The last their family heard from them was a message on WhatsApp that read: “Help, we’re dying.”
Hamas later distributed a video of Ms. Aloni in captivity.
Adina Moshe, 72
Ms. Moshe was last seen on Oct. 7 between two gunmen on a motorcycle being driven into Gaza. She was kidnapped from her safe room in Kibbutz Nir Oz after her husband, Sa’id Moshe, was killed during the Hamas assault.
Naama Ben-Dvora, Ms. Moshe’s niece, told an Israeli broadcaster that she felt “a sense of very, very great relief, and happiness and hope, of course, that every one of them will come home.”
Yaffa Adar, 85
Ms. Adar helped found Kibbutz Nir Oz in the 1950s, according to her family. She was kidnapped with her grandson Tamir Adar, 38, who remains in captivity.
A photograph of Ms. Adar’s abduction became one of the defining images of the attack. She was photographed wrapped in a pink blanket as she sat in a golf cart that was driven by militants into Gaza.
Hanna Katzir, 76
Ms. Katzir helped oversee child care in Kibbutz Nir Oz for many years, according to a niece, Dalit Katzenellenbogen, who lives in Tel Aviv. A grandmother of six who uses a walker, she was abducted to Gaza with her son, Elad Katzir, 47. Her husband, Rami, was killed.
Islamic Jihad, an armed Palestinian group that helped lead the assault, had recently claimed that Ms. Katzir had died in captivity and said it would provide evidence, which never materialized.
Hanna Peri, 79
Ms. Peri, one of five people who were captured on Oct. 7 from Kibbutz Nirim, immigrated to Israel from South Africa in the 1960s and has lived at Nirim ever since. Ms. Peri worked at the community’s grocery store. One of her three children was killed in the assault on Oct. 7 and another was kidnapped to Gaza and is believed to still be a captive there.
Ms. Peri has diabetes and severe vision loss in one eye, and she loves gardening and taking tai chi classes, according to the Hostages Family Forum, a nongovernmental organization advocating for the release of the hostages and supporting their families.
Margalit Moses, 77
A nature lover and a cancer survivor, Ms. Moses, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, also has diabetes and other chronic health problems, according to the Hostages Family Forum.
Despite her poor health, the forum said, she loves to hike. A dual German citizen, she traveled to Norway in the summer and was planning to visit Mozambique this winter.
Doron Katz Asher, 34; Raz Asher, 4; Aviv Asher, 2
Ms. Katz Asher was abducted with her two young daughters, Raz and Aviv Asher, while they were staying at her mother’s home in Kibbutz Nir Oz. The Katz Ashers hold dual German citizenship.
Ms. Katz Asher’s husband, Yoni Katz Asher, 37, last heard from her on Oct. 7, when she called him to say that there were terrorists inside her mother’s home.
Later, he spotted his family members in a video posted on social media, which showed them being driven through Gaza on the back of a pickup truck. Tracking his wife’s phone remotely, Mr. Asher saw that the device was taken to Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza.
“I am determined to help my family recover from the terrible trauma and loss we went through, for my daughters and my wife’s future,” Mr. Katz Asher said in a statement released through the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum on Friday, adding, “I will not celebrate until the last of the hostages returns home.”
