Palestinian armed groups must immediately and unconditionally release all civilians held hostage in the occupied Gaza Strip, reiterated Amnesty International nearly two years after they were seized during the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
The organization is also reiterating its calls for an immediate ceasefire and for Israel to end its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Over the past month, Israel has stepped up its campaign of annihilation against Palestinians in Gaza, adding hundreds more civilians to the ever-rising death toll, deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure and forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, demonstrating its determination to bring about their physical destruction.
Israel’s current military escalation in Gaza, in Gaza City in particular, is not only having catastrophic consequences for Palestinians struggling to survive an engineered famine and forced displacement, it also further endangers the lives of those Israelis and other individuals held hostage by Palestinian armed groups. On 20 September 2025 the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, published what it described as a “farewell image” featuring the photographs of people still held hostage and thereby heightened fears over their fate.
Out of the 47 people who continue to be unlawfully held it is believed that approximately 20, all men, are still alive. They are at grave risk of death, torture and other ill-treatment. They are the last remaining of the 251 people – mostly civilians – who were seized, in most cases alive, and taken to Gaza during the brutal Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023. The majority were taken alive, but, in 36 cases reportedly, Palestinian assailants seized the bodies of people who were killed during the attacks. Hostage-taking is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.
“Every moment of inaction costs more lives and deepens the horrors civilians are facing. An immediate ceasefire is not just a moral imperative; it is a global responsibility. Israel must immediately stop its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza including its deliberate starvation and mass displacement policy. Palestinian armed groups must immediately release all civilian hostages,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“Pending their release, Hamas must ensure that all hostages are treated humanely, granted access to international monitors and allowed regular, dignified communication with their family and loved ones. Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups must also immediately and unconditionally return the bodies of all individuals seized on 7 October 2023. Anything less continues to constitute grave crimes under international law and is a further source of anguish for families desperate for the safe return, or at least news, of their loved ones.”
Statements and actions by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have made clear they have been holding both civilians and soldiers as bargaining chips to compel Israeli authorities to stop their military attacks, release all arbitrarily detained Palestinian prisoners and end the blockade on Gaza and their unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory. This conduct corresponds to the definition of hostage-taking under international law.
Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have dramatically increased the detention of Palestinians, across the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). According to Hamoked, as of 1 September 2025, 11,040 Palestinians are being held by Israeli authorities, some of whom have been in prison for decades. More than half – about 57% – are held without charge or trial either under administrative detention or under the Unlawful Combatants Law. According to the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC), the bodies of at least 730 Palestinians are held by Israel as bargaining chips, some for decades.
Amnesty International is demanding that Israel immediately release the thousands of Palestinians it arbitrarily detains, end its abuses against Palestinian detainees, which include torture, starvation and sexual violence, and stop its long-standing illegal practice of withholding Palestinian bodies as bargaining chips.
“There can be no justification for seizing people as hostages nor for the prolonged arbitrary detention of individuals without charge or trial. The world must not turn its back on humanity,” said Agnès Callamard.
Physical, sexual and psychological abuse of hostages in captivity
Israelis and other nationals taken hostage have faced a harrowing ordeal since 7 October 2023. All hostages have been held incommunicado, denying them any contact with their family or access to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) until the time of their release. Many families have received no signs of life to indicate whether their loved ones were alive or dead for months or longer, compounding their suffering.
In accounts they have given to Amnesty International, to the media or to medical professionals, released hostages have reported being subjected to abuse while in captivity. One released hostage told Amnesty International that he and four other men were beaten over several days after they were seized and described being held in a tunnel and denied adequate food and water. At least five other men and one woman have publicly reported they were subjected to beatings and other physical mistreatment, and four women, two girls and two men have publicly reported being subjected to sexual assault, forced nudity or threats of forced marriage. These are forms of physical and sexual violence which amount to torture or other ill-treatment under international law.
A medical professional involved in treating hostages released in November 2023 told Amnesty International that some hostages reported being beaten, forced to witness or participate in violent acts, confined in isolation or total darkness and deprived of basic needs, leading to serious and long-term mental and physical health implications. The medical professional also said that some returned hostages said they were subjected to sexual violence, including forced nudity and sexual assault.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel (UN Commission of Inquiry) stated in September 2024 that it “received credible information about some hostages being subjected to sexual and gender-based violence while in captivity” including one female hostage who reported that she had been raped. The Office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court also reported finding evidence of sexual violence, including rape, against hostages. The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber, in approving the Prosecutor’s request for the arrest warrant against Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri (known as Mohammed Deif), commander of Hamas’s military wing, noted that “while they were held captive in Gaza, some hostages, predominantly women, were subjected to sexual and gender-based violence, including forced penetration, forced nudity, and humiliating and degrading treatment”.
Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad subjected all hostages they held, as well as their family members, to psychological abuse. They held all hostages incommunicado, without contact with the outside world. They denied all hostages communication with their family and access to the ICRC until their release. They did not provide a list of hostages they held, nor did they share details and updates on the hostages’ whereabouts or condition, thereby denying families information about loved ones held hostage. Family members of hostages with whom Amnesty International spoke described not having received signs of life for months or longer, as well as the unbearable pain and anguish of not knowing where or how their loved ones are, or if and when they will return.
Palestinian armed groups intentionally separated family members held hostage from each other and kept some children completely alone, according to testimonies released hostages gave to medical professionals. Erez Calderon, aged 11 at the time of his abduction from Nir Oz, and whose capture was recorded on a video verified by Amnesty International, told Israeli media that he was held separately from his father and sister. This was confirmed by Erez’s family members in separate media reports.
Hamas and Palestinian armed groups have published photographs and videos of hostages often seen injured, in pain, fear or pleading for their lives or release. They have also publicly paraded hostages in front of crowds during their abduction and in humiliating “release ceremonies”. Subjecting hostages to such humiliating and degrading treatment is a form of outrage upon personal dignity, which is prohibited by international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime.
In late July and early August 2025, Palestinian armed groups posted online videos of two hostages which indicated they were being subjected to severe mistreatment. One of the hostages, Rom Braslavski, is seen on the floor of a tunnel, emaciated and weeping, in a video bearing the logo of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He says he is too weak to stand and is on the verge of death. Adding to the suffering of the family, Palestinian Islamic Jihad claimed that, since the video was made, they had lost contact with Rom’s captors. A video of Evyatar David published on 2 August 2025 by the Al-Qassam Brigades shows him emaciated in a tunnel and being forced to dig what he says he believes is his own grave. He describes in detail and with reference to an annotated calendar going consecutive days without food. Being forced to dig one’s own grave in these circumstances also amounts to torture, as does intentional denial of food over extended periods of time in captivity and psychological abuse.
The holding of hostages and broadcasting of videos of their suffering is not only a crime against the immediate victims, but the uncertainty and anguish caused to hostages’ loved ones constitutes torture or other ill-treatment.
Hostage-taking and seizure of bodies
According to a database produced by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, cross-checked against other datasets, out of the 251 people seized during the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel, 27 were soldiers on active duty. The vast majority of the remaining 224 people were civilians. They comprised 124 men, 64 women and 36 children. Among those abducted from Israel were 16 children under the age of 10, and nine people aged over 80. Most of those seized were Jewish Israelis, including some with dual nationality. Seven were Bedouin citizens of Israel. At least 35 were foreign nationals. In 36 cases, the victims were already dead when taken to Gaza.
Based on video and testimonial evidence, Amnesty International has documented incidents of individuals, couples and families being forced out of their homes in multiple civilian communities on 7 October 2023 and taken to Gaza, including by members of the Al-Qassam Brigades. It has similarly documented the abduction of young people from the Nova music festival site and surrounding areas, some of whom were forced out of rocket shelters where they were hiding.
Shoshan Haran, the founder and president of Fair Planet, an Israeli development NGO, and a member of Women Wage Peace, a grassroots peace movement, was abducted with six other members of her family, including three children, and held hostage by Hamas. Shoshan, who lived in Be’eri, a kibbutz, around 4km from the perimeter fence surrounding Gaza, and was aged 67 at the time, told Amnesty International that, after receiving a warning via WhatsApp she and her family sheltered in her safe room.
Shoshan told Amnesty International that armed men forced them out the safe room. One of them shouted at them in English, “Women, children, take. Men, boom-boom.” They were then taken out of the kibbutz, to Gaza. When she and five members of her family were released from what she described as the “horrifying 50 days of captivity”, she learnt that her husband, Avshalom Haran, had been killed after the family were forced out of their safe room. Her son-in-law, Tal Shoham, who had been abducted with her, endured over 500 days in captivity before he was released.
Shoshan’s sister, Lilach Kipnis, her sister’s husband, Eviatar Kipnis, and Paul Castelvi, a Filipino national who worked as a caregiver with the family, were also among those killed in the attack on the kibbutz.
A 49-year-old teacher, Liat Atzili, described to Amnesty International being taken hostage from Nir Oz, another kibbutz near the perimeter fence surrounding Gaza. She said she hid in her safe room while the kibbutz was attacked and that at first some people in civilian clothing came and opened the safe room door, asked her for money and left when she said she did not have any. They were soon, however, followed by armed men. She said: “Two people arrived, armed, in uniform, and they opened the door. They kidnapped me.” She said that she was taken in a vehicle with another person from the kibbutz but was separated from this person on arrival in Gaza. She told Amnesty International that guards holding her told her that they were members of Hamas, and recounted being visited by other Hamas members during her time in captivity whom she understood to be more senior and “doing the rounds between apartments” where hostages were being held.
Also, among those abducted on 7 October 2023 were individuals who were clearly very badly injured, as seen in videos verified by Amnesty International. They included Hersh Goldberg-Polin, aged 22, who was abducted from Road 232 near the Nova festival site after fleeing the attack on the festival and seeking refuge in a rocket shelter.
Amnesty International has also documented evidence that Palestinian fighters, likely including fighters from both the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, took to Gaza the bodies of people who had been killed or mortally wounded during attacks in southern Israel. This practice denied families the opportunity to bury their loved ones, and in many instances left them not knowing, sometimes for months or longer, if their loved ones were still alive or had been killed.
At least 48 hostages who were seized alive have reportedly died in Gaza. Others were released in negotiated exchanges or rescued in Israeli military raids, one of which resulted in the killing of hundreds of Palestinians.
Killing of hostages
The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, have issued public statements threatening to kill the Israeli hostages they have been holding in retaliation for Israeli actions or to prevent rescue operations by the Israeli military.
On 1 September 2024, the Israeli military announced that, the previous day, it had recovered the bodies of six Israeli hostages from an underground tunnel in Rafah near where their forces had found another hostage, 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi, alone, but alive, in a tunnel in August 2024.
Three statements posted by Abu Obaida, the Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson, on social media on 2 September 2024, seemingly in response to the Israeli military’s announcement, suggested that the six were killed to prevent them from being rescued.
In 2025, the Al-Qassam Brigades stepped up threats to kill the remaining Israeli hostages. On 15 February 2025, as shown in a video analysed by Amnesty International, they forced one of three Israeli hostages who were being released in a negotiated hostage-prisoner exchange, to hold an hourglass above a photograph of Matan Zangauker, one of the hostages still being held in Gaza, in a threatening message that time was running out for the remaining hostages. On 24 March 2025, the Al-Qassam Brigades issued yet another video featuring two hostages pleading for a hostage-prisoner exchange deal as their only chance of survival.
The bodies of three of the most well-known hostages abducted on 7 October 2023, Argentine-Israeli Shiri Bibas and her two sons – nine-month-old Kfir Bibas and four-year-old Ariel Bibas – were finally returned to their family on 21 February 2025 as part of a negotiated hostage-prisoner exchange. Three weeks earlier, the Al-Qassam Brigades released Yarden Bibas, Shiri’s husband and the children’s father, who had been held separately from his wife and children.
Shiri and her two sons were alive and unharmed when they were seen being abducted from Nir Oz on 7 October 2023, but, in a video date-stamped 20 December 2024, a spokesperson of the Mujahideen Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement, stated in a media interview that they had been killed in an Israeli air strike along with their captors. The Al-Qassam Brigades made a statement to the same effect, and the Israeli army said it would investigate the allegation. Neither the Mujahideen Brigades nor the Al-Qassam Brigades provided any evidence to substantiate their claims. The Israeli authorities claimed that the victims had been killed by their captors but similarly provided no evidence.
Some hostages were killed by the Israeli military. The most well-known case is that of Yotam Haim, aged 28, Samer Talalka, aged 22, and Alon Shamriz, aged 26, all of whom were shot dead on 15 December 2023 in the Shuja’iya neighbourhood of Gaza City, where Israeli forces were facing significant resistance from local Palestinian armed groups. The Israeli military took responsibility for these killings promptly, whereas in the case of three other hostages – Nik Beizer, Ron Sherman and Elia Toledano – it took the army 10 months to announce that they had been killed in an air strike in November 2023.
Background
During the 7 October 2023 attacks in southern Israel around 1,200 people were killed. More than 800 of them were civilians, including at least 36 children. The victims were primarily Jewish Israelis, but also included Bedouin citizens of Israel, and scores of foreign national migrant workers, students and asylum seekers. More than 4,000 people were injured, and hundreds of homes and civilian structures were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. Amnesty International has concluded that Palestinian armed groups committed violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes during the attacks and are continuing to commit crimes under international law in their ongoing holding and mistreatment of hostages and the withholding of bodies seized.
In May 2024, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed applications for arrest warrants against Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh, Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar over their alleged responsibility for the following war crimes and/or crimes against humanity committed from 7 October 2023 onwards: extermination, murder, rape and other sexual violence, hostage-taking, torture, other inhumane acts, cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity. In November 2024, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the Court issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Deif. The Chamber terminated proceedings against each of the three Palestinians suspects after they were confirmed to have been killed in Israeli military operations.
The military offensive Israel launched in the wake of the 7 October 2023 attacks has killed more than 65,000 people, including over 18,000 children, and injured over 200,000, according to the Gaza-based Ministry of Health. Many have been killed or injured in direct attacks on civilians or indiscriminate attacks, which have often wiped out entire multigenerational families. Tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza remain unaccounted for; their bodies are believed to be trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings or in areas that are inaccessible due to Israeli military operations. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 78% of all structures in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged as a result of Israeli military operations.
In November 2024, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for the war crimes of starvation of civilians and intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population, as well as for the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.
In December 2024 Amnesty International concluded that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza through killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, mostly civilians, have been detained during Israel’s military operations, many subjected to public forced nudity and torture before being transferred to detention camps and prisons inside Israel.
While in detention, Israeli authorities have systematically subjected them to torture or other ill-treatment, including starvation, physical and sexual violence, and denied them access to independent monitors and humanitarian organizations. Since 7 October 2023, at least 76 Palestinians have died while in Israeli custody, according to the Palestinian detainees’ commission. The actual number of Palestinian deaths in custody is believed to be higher.
The 7 October 2023 attacks took place against the backdrop of Israel’s prolonged occupation of the OPT and the widespread human rights violations perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians, including the imposition of a system of apartheid on Palestinians and the long-standing illegal blockade of Gaza since 2007.
