Gaza: Seven Israeli soldier hostages to be returned dead

Six were killed in the fighting on October 7, 2023, according to the army, and a seventh is presumed dead in the absence of any evidence of life.

The remains of an eighth soldier, Hadar Goldin, killed in 2014 during a previous war in Gaza, are also being held in the Palestinian territory and are also supposed to be released.

Here are some short profiles of the seven from October 7:

- Doubts: Tamir Nimrodi, 18 -

There are doubts over the fate of Tamir Nimrodi, an Israeli-German who was 18 when he was captured. He is one of the few hostages for whom no proof of life has been given since.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not read out his name along with other hostages listed as alive at the UN General Assembly in late September.

Nimrodi was doing his military service at a base near the Erez crossing into Gaza when he was abducted.

He was with two other soldiers, Ron Sherman and Nick Beizer, who were later killed, probably in an Israeli strike, and whose bodies were repatriated in September 2024 to Israel.

They can be seen in a video published by Hamas at the time of their capture.

Nimrodi appears without his glasses, something his family told the Times of Israel meant he would not be able to see a "metre".

The young man, who his mother Herout Nimrodi told AFP, was "joyful, curious, altruistic, creative", was in a defence ministry unit supervising civilian activities in the Palestinian territories.

He was one of three children.

- Confirmed dead: Mohammad Alatrash, 39 -

Mohammad Alatrash, a sergeant major in the Israeli military's Bedouin Trackers Unit, was killed in combat near the Nahal Oz kibbutz close to the border and his body was taken into Gaza by Hamas militants.

His death was confirmed in June 2024 by Israel.

From the village of Mulada in southern Israel, Alatrash, 39, had two wives and 13 children, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. His youngest child was born just a month before the attack, according to Israeli media.

- Itay Chen, 19 -

Sergeant Itay Chen, a dual Israeli-US national, was working at the border with the Gaza Strip when Hamas and its allies launched their attack.

He gave a last sign of life to his parents when the attack started, then nothing.

The Israeli army only announced his death five months later in March 2024. It said he died in combat and his body was taken to Gaza.

- Oz Daniel, 19 -

Corporal Oz Daniel, who was serving in an armoured regiment, died in the October 7 attacks and his body was taken to Gaza.

Aged 19, he was patrolling near the Nahal Oz kibbutz in an assault tank, which had faulty brakes.

He was shown in a Hamas video being dragged out by Hamas attackers with three other soldiers: Nimrod Cohen, Omer Neutra and Shaked Dahan.

Neutra and Dahan were also killed and their bodies taken to Gaza. Dahan's remains were repatriated to Israel in mid-2024.

Cohen was taken hostage and is still listed as alive.

Daniel, who played the guitar and was a fan of the group Guns N' Roses, "believed in the power of music to change the world", according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.

Despite the absence of a body, his funeral was held in February 2024 in Kfar Saba, central Israel, where he lived. He had a twin sister.

- Assaf Hamami, 40 -

Colonel Assaf Hamami was the highest ranking officer to be taken hostage. He entered the army in 2001, and was head of the brigade charged with the region of the southern Gaza Strip.

He was killed in the fighting after announcing "It's war" at 06:35 am when he realised Hamas gunmen had entered Israel.

The bodies of the two soldiers killed alongside him were brought back from Gaza to Israel in July 2024.

Married with three children, his funeral was held in December 2023 at which the defence minister at the time, Yoav Gallant described him as "among the army's best qualified".

- Omer Neutra, 21 -

Omer Neutra, 21, a US-Israeli national and a volunteer soldier, was killed on October 7, with the Israeli army saying in December 2024 that his body was being held in Gaza.

He was in the same tank with faulty brakes as Nimrod Cohen, Oz Daniel and Shaked Dahan.

He was shown in a Hamas video being dragged out by Hamas attackers with the three other soldiers.

For more than a year, Neutra's family had believed him alive.

Raised in New York, Neutra went to Israel to experience the country of his parents, his mother Orna Neutra told AFP in November 2023.

After finishing high school, he did not go straight to university, and instead travelled to Israel. He ended up enlisting for military service as his parents had done -- and as most young Israelis do.

"He went there for the right reasons, you know, he felt that he wanted to protect," his mother said.

- Daniel Peretz, 22 -

An officer in the Israeli army's armoured division, he was killed on October 7 and his body taken to Gaza. He lived at Yad Binyamin in central Israel.

A funeral was held in March 2024. Daniel was born in South Africa, where his father was a rabbi and his family emigrated when he was 13. His father, Doron Peretz, heads the religious Zionist group, the World Mizrachi movement.

His brother Yonatan, an officer in the army, was wounded on October 7.