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Overnight, families of the hostages were heading to a military base in southern Israel where they expected to reunite with loved ones returning from Gaza later in the morning. Thousands of Israelis crammed into Hostages Square, a plaza in central Tel Aviv, to show support by waving Israeli flags and signs bearing photos of those expected to be freed.

In both Israel and Gaza, the cease-fire that took effect last week, and the prospect of a hostage-for-prisoner swap on Monday, brought relief after two devastating years of war. Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting about 250 others. Israel then invaded Gaza, killing about 67,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health authorities, and reducing much of the territory to ruins.

For many Israelis, getting the hostages back is by far their most important goal. Scores of hostages were released in two earlier temporary cease-fires, and a small number were rescued alive by Israeli soldiers.

For Palestinians, the cease-fire offered hope of an eventual return to something approaching normal life.

Thousands of displaced Gaza residents began to return north to Gaza City after the cease-fire took effect, and increased quantities of desperately needed food, medicine and other humanitarian aid have started to flow into the enclave.

Here’s what else to know:

• The logistics: Under the deal reached last week in talks brokered by U.S., Arab and Turkish mediators, Israeli forces withdrew to a new defensive line inside Gaza by noon on Friday, opening a 72-hour window for the hostages to be released. Read more >

• The dead: Hamas is required under the cease-fire to turn over the remains of deceased hostages, but it is unclear how quickly that will happen. Israel believes 26 hostages are dead, while the condition of two other captives has not been confirmed. Officials have said that Hamas will have to search for the remains of some hostages, which may take some time.

• Egypt summit: Later on Monday, Mr. Trump was scheduled to fly to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where he and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt were expected to lead a summit with other countries that supported the cease-fire deal, to discuss the complicated next steps toward peace. Read more >

• Why now? The question of why it took two years to reach a hostage deal — and whether it could have been done faster — hung over celebrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem over the weekend. Historians will be studying the question for years to come. Read more >

According to Vice President JD Vance, Mr. Trump plans to “welcome them in person.”

Mr. Vance, speaking on the Fox News program “Sunday Morning Futures,” also raised doubts about whether the bodies of all the dead hostages would be returned. “I think the reality is that some of the hostages we may never get back,” he said, referring to their remains, “but I do think most of them, with some effort, we’ll be able to give them to their families so they at least have some closure.”

The summit meeting in Egypt will be held at Sharm el-Sheikh, a Red Sea resort, where mediators recently hammered out a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas to free Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a partial pullback of Israeli forces.

The cease-fire, which took effect on Friday morning, is the first phase of an agreement brokered by the United States, Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to end the two-year war, with the next phases still to be negotiated. Mr. Trump put pressure on both sides to break the deadlock.

Several Arab nations who support Mr. Trump’s peace plan will attend the summit, along with the U.N. secretary-general and the heads of state from the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, was invited to participate, according to Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, and was expected to attend. It was not immediately clear whether any Israeli representatives would participate.

“The summit aims to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to bring peace and stability to the Middle East, and usher in a new phase of regional security and stability,” the Egyptian president's office said in its announcement, adding the meeting “comes in light of U.S. President Trump’s vision for achieving peace in the region.”

For Mr. Trump, the meeting appeared to be part of a victory lap, even though it still remains unclear if the cease-fire will hold and become permanent after the hostages are exchanged for 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Two major sticking points in negotiations — whether Hamas will disarm and agree to be excluded from any future government in Gaza — are still unresolved.

The president is likely to be praised as a peacemaker in any case. Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, for instance, will pay “particular tribute” to Mr. Trump, his office said in a statement.

Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.

Holding up photos of the remaining hostages, the crowds cheered on Saturday evening at the mention of President Trump, who many Israelis believe forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seize this moment. They listened intently to Steve Witkoff, the president’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, address the cheering throngs.

But overarching the moment was the question of whether this deal could have been done far sooner, when more hostages may have been alive, and before tens of thousands more Palestinians were killed. That argument lay behind the boos that ran through the crowd when Mr. Witkoff mentioned Mr. Netanyahu. Hearing the reaction, Mr. Witkoff tried to defend Mr. Netanyahu, insisting that “I was in the trenches with the prime minister” and saw how he was seeking “a safer, stronger future for the Jewish people.” That was met with more booing.

Historians may argue for years whether the Israel-Hamas war could have ended a year ago this week, when Israeli forces tripped upon and killed Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief and architect of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Or, alternatively, whether Israel and Hamas missed a chance to build on the cease-fire that President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his aides left in place before Mr. Trump took over. Despite the fact that Mr. Witkoff was involved in the January deal, it did not stick, and early in Mr. Trump’s term the war resumed, bringing with it more death and suffering.

Debates over how wars could have ended sooner, and saved thousands or millions of lives, are hardly new. Historians are still arguing over whether Japan would have surrendered anyway if President Harry S. Truman had decided against dropping two atomic weapons; whether President Richard M. Nixon waited years too long to get out of Vietnam. Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump argued for an earlier exit from Afghanistan.

“This is a different moment — we didn’t have then what President Trump has now,” Antony J. Blinken, Mr. Biden’s secretary of state, said in a telephone interview over the weekend. “Hamas is defeated as a military organization, isolated diplomatically, it’s lost its patrons — Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis — and it has alienated the people of Gaza.”

He added: “Israel long ago achieved its war aims of destroying Hamas’s capacity to repeat Oct. 7 and killing the leaders responsible — at great cost to Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire. The Israeli people want the remaining hostages home and the war to end.”

Here is a look at some of the explanations for why the hostage release — and perhaps a new start for Gaza — is happening now.

Feints, Bluffs and an Election

Two years ago this week, after the Oct. 7 attack, Mr. Biden traveled to Israel to show his solidarity. But he also issued a warning — strongly in private, his aides reported later, and more gently in public — that there was a risk to overreaction.

“Justice must be done,” Mr. Biden said on his one-day visit on Oct. 18, 2023. “But I caution that, while you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes.”

Mr. Biden was reacting to the fact that Israel had already cut off virtually all food and fuel to Gaza. For a while, the United States kept the pressure off the Israelis, even vetoing a U.N. Security Council resolution to keep humanitarian corridors open to allow the flow of food and civilians. Mr. Biden would need time, American officials maintained, to quietly negotiate a deal.

But neither side was ready. Hamas spent the summer of 2024 arguing over how far Israeli forces would have to pull back along the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow strip along the border between Gaza and Egypt. “The blame is on Hamas, because it could have been done all these steps earlier, but they refused to discuss disarmament or relinquishing control,” said Amos Yadlin, a former head of military intelligence for Israel who runs MIND Israel, a strategic consulting company. “But it is also on Netanyahu, because it wasn’t until last summer that he was even willing to lay out demands for ending the war.”

Then Mr. Trump won the presidency back, and the Biden administration was determined to get a cease-fire in place by January, before it left office. It drafted a peace plan, much of which was quite similar to the “20 point plan” Mr. Trump recently issued. There was slow progress: More than 130 hostages had been released by the time the January cease-fire took place.

“We handed over a cease-fire that silenced the guns, had hostages coming out and aid going in, along with a day-after plan to make it permanent,” Mr. Blinken said. But when the new administration took over, “the moment was squandered,” he added. “Israel and Hamas went back to war for eight months.”

Israeli officials tell a different story. Mr. Biden was a lame duck, they noted, and disengaged. Mr. Trump was a known entity, less likely to lecture Mr. Netanyahu in private or public. They put their money on a new president, and a new negotiating team.

A Changed Battlefield in 2025

Much changed in Israel’s favor in the new year.

Mr. Sinwar’s death sent Hamas into a leadership crisis. Israel’s military pressure grew as Hamas’ supply of ammunition was depleted. And “the 12-day war with Iran really moved the needle,” said Brett McGurk, who had negotiated in the region since the Bush administration and was running the talks for Mr. Biden. Suddenly, Hamas realized that the country that had both bankrolled and supplied it could no longer be relied upon.

Multiple factors, Palestinian analysts say, pushed Hamas to begin rethinking the value of continuing to hold the hostages.

“In the beginning, Hamas thought taking the hostages would deter the Israeli government from waging a big war,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a Palestinian professor of political science in Egypt, who fled Gaza early in the war. Now, the logic of holding hostages may have flipped: Rather than protect Gaza from attack, several analysts have noted, their existence was giving Mr. Netanyahu an excuse to press ahead.

“If Hamas said no, the war would have gone on — the bloodshed, the destruction and the killing would have gone on and on,” Mr. Abusada said. “So Hamas decided: Let’s just accept this offer and believe the guarantees that the war will not return.”

The Trump Factor

Mr. Trump famously has little time or patience for traditional diplomacy. If the State Department’s approach to cease-fires and peace negotiations is to labor over maps and work through diplomatic channels, defining boundaries and anticipating loopholes, Mr. Trump negotiates the way he struck real estate deals in New York: in broad concepts, leaving the details to others.

Administration officials say the result suggests that this should be Mr. Trump’s model for the future. “He pursued a very nontraditional diplomacy with people who were not 40-year diplomats, but people who brought a fresh perspective to it,” Vice President JD Vance said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “And, of course, the president was criticized for it. The diplomatic team was criticized for it.”

Since Mr. Trump took office, Mr. Netanyahu largely benefited from a changed tone. Mr. Trump has hosted him at the White House four times, more than any other world leader. He has called for the cancellation of the prime minister’s corruption trial, he has opposed calls for the recognition of a Palestinian state, and he has ordered U.S. forces to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

On Gaza, the president put few, if any, guardrails on Israel’s offensive, bucking international demands for a cease-fire.

Moreover, to the delight of Israel’s hard right, the new president wasted weeks consumed with a bizarre plan to annex Gaza, somehow pushing out the Palestinians and building a glistening beach resort, similar to Miami. (Mr. Trump once held a similar fantasy about North Korea, and even made North Korea’s leader a short film, with mock-ups of water parks and luxury condos.) In the case of Gaza, he circulated an AI-created video of a luxury resort city, with images of him and Mr. Netanyahu sipping coffee. The prime minister humored him, praising his vision even while stepping up military pressure.

And Mr. Trump signaled the importance of a deal by bringing Mr. Kushner back into the swirl of diplomacy, hoping that his business connections with Qatar and other players in the region could be leveraged to good advantage. It was Mr. Kushner who negotiated the Abraham Accords in the first term, in which Arab states recognized Israel — a huge step. Of course, those connections fuel Mr. Trump’s critics, who see a blurring of diplomacy and for-profit deals.

But the Israeli attempt to kill Hamas negotiators in Qatar, dropping a bomb on their temporary residence, both angered Mr. Trump and awakened him. It gave the United States the opportunity to rally Arab states around the 20-point plan, even if they thought many of the details would not work.

And so when Mr. Trump called Mr. Netanyahu to the White House in September, following the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, the prime minister was in no position to resist him. He had to call the prime minister of Qatar and read an apology to him — while White House photographers recorded the moment. The message was clear: Mr. Netanyahu was now in a new world, where he had to heed some American mandates.

Then Mr. Trump pressed the Israeli leader to sign on to his 20-point plan, with its cease-fire and the insertion of a “technocratic” temporary government in Gaza backed by an international stability force. While it fell short of Mr. Netanyahu’s maximalist demands, he had to agree to the document. He was both indebted to Mr. Trump and aware that provoking his capricious counterpart could lead to negative consequences for himself and for Israel.

He may have also been betting that Hamas would reject the deal, because it required the terrorist group to disarm and leave the territory.

Hamas said “yes, but,” agreeing to the first terms — the hostage release in return for a prisoner swap — but insisting on more negotiations on the critical next steps. Mr. Trump ignored the “but,” and simply took the partial yes as full agreement.

“Trump succeeded in convincing Prime Minister Netanyahu to do what perhaps should have been done right after Israel’s victory over Iran — or even earlier, during the second phase of the January 2025 deal,” Mr. Yadlin wrote on Sunday in The Jerusalem Post.

“He grasped what Netanyahu did not: that the war was inflicting immense diplomatic damage and that ‘total victory’ in Gaza was unattainable without killing the hostages, sacrificing soldiers and harming civilians behind whom Hamas hides. He understood the Israeli public mood far better than the government — an overwhelming 80 percent supported bringing the hostages home even at the cost of ending the war.”

“This is a historic event that blends sorrow over the release of murderers and joy over the return of hostages,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said in a recorded statement broadcast on Sunday evening.

On both sides, there was relief mixed with elation after two devastating years of war. Adding to the hope: The open-ended truce between Israel and Hamas, which was brokered by the United States and Arab mediators and began at noon on Friday, appeared to be holding over the weekend.

As part of the first phase of the cease-fire deal, Israeli forces have withdrawn to a new defensive line inside Gaza.

The war created a dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the deal provides a pathway for desperately needed food, medicine and other supplies, which are starting to flow in.

On Sunday, efforts appeared to be underway to increase aid deliveries, with dozens of trucks crossing the border from Egypt, according to news footage. The number of trucks entering Gaza is supposed to double under the cease-fire, to about 600 per day.

The United Nations World Food Program said on Saturday that it had begun scaling up its operations in Gaza and that in the coming weeks it planned to increase the number of bakeries it supports to 30 from 10.

The war in Gaza killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Most of the two million residents of Gaza were displaced multiple times.

With the cease-fire signed, thousands of displaced Palestinian residents have headed back to Gaza City in the north of the territory over the past days.

President Trump left the United States on Sunday and land in Israel on Monday for a short visit. He is set to meet with the families of hostages and address the Israeli Knesset, or Parliament, in Jerusalem.

He then is scheduled to fly to Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort on the Red Sea, where he and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt will lead a summit with other Arab partners who supported the deal. World leaders have also been invited to attend.

Unveiling the cease-fire plan late last month, Mr. Trump described the occasion as “potentially one of the great days ever in civilization.” His celebratory declarations about bringing peace to the Middle East may be premature, however.

Mr. Netanyahu struck a more sober tone in his own statement on Sunday, speaking in Hebrew to his domestic audience.

“Everywhere we fought, we won,” he said.

“But in the same breath, I must tell you: The campaign is not over,” Mr. Netanyahu cautioned. “There are still very great security challenges ahead of us. Some of our enemies are trying to rebuild themselves to attack us again. And as we say, ‘We’re on it.’”

Analysts say the Gaza cease-fire deal lacks details and leaves many critical questions unanswered, including whether Hamas will be disarmed and stripped of its power in Gaza and how the territory will be governed after the war.

Mr. Trump’s road map for ending the war envisions Hamas laying down its weapons and the demilitarization of Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu has long insisted on those steps as conditions for ending the war in Gaza. But Hamas officials have expressed deep reservations about both steps.

It is also unclear which, if any, countries were planning to send troops to join an international stabilization force that Mr. Trump had suggested would handle security in postwar Gaza.

Adding to the confusion, Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, issued a statement on Sunday saying that the greatest challenge for his country after the hostages’ release would be “the destruction of all of Hamas’s terror tunnels in Gaza.”

Mr. Katz said that mission would be carried out directly by Israeli military forces “and by means of the international mechanism that will be established under the leadership and supervision of the United States.”

Destroying the tunnels would be the main expression of the demilitarization of Gaza and the dismantling Hamas’s weapons, Mr. Katz said. He said he had “instructed the Israeli military to prepare to carry out the mission.”

But Israeli forces have now withdrawn from Gaza City, where much of the Hamas military infrastructure remains intact, according to Israeli leaders, who only recently described the city as one of the militant group’s last bastions.

Israeli forces had been taking over the core of Gaza City in a new phase of their campaign aimed at destroying Hamas’s military and governing abilities when the deal stopped them in their tracks.

Under the terms of the agreement, Israeli forces cannot return to areas from which they have withdrawn as long as Hamas is seen as complying with the deal.

Asked about Mr. Katz’s statement, an Israeli military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity under army rules, said there were different ways to deal with the demilitarization of Gaza and disarming Hamas. He said that Israeli forces could still operate east of their new line within Gaza, in areas they control, and that the international mechanism was still to be determined.

But one commentator warned Israel may have less freedom to resume fighting this time around. “Israel is mistaken in thinking that it will be able to afford either to return to war or to maintain a Lebanese model of frequent attacks,” Yoav Limor, a commentator on military affairs for Israel Hayom, a right-wing daily, wrote Sunday. He was referring to Israel’s frequent military strikes against targets in Lebanon despite a cease-fire reached almost a year ago that was meant to end its war with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shiite militia.

“That will never be tolerated, and judging by Trump’s recent statements, he, too, is determined to move on and has no interest in getting sucked back into Gaza’s problems,” Mr. Limor said.

Hamas set off the war in Gaza by leading an attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people in Israel, mostly civilians. It was the deadliest day in the country’s history. Roughly 250 other people were abducted.

Scores of hostages were released during two past, temporary cease-fires, and a handful were rescued in military operations.

The Israeli government says that 20 hostages are now expected to be freed, and the remains of 26 who died in captivity are to be returned. The condition of two other captives has not been confirmed.

Gabby Sobelman contributed reporting.

The Israeli government believes that 20 hostages are still alive and 26 have died in captivity. Two hostages have not been declared dead, but no recent signs of life have been received for them, according to the Israeli authorities.

Here is a list of the hostages believed to be alive or whose circumstances are unknown. Their names and ages have been provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that advocates on behalf of the hostages and their loved ones.

Alon Ohel

Alon Ohel, 24, a pianist from northern Israel, was seized from a roadside bomb shelter after fleeing the Nova music festival, where more than 380 people were killed during the Hamas-led assault in southern Israel.

The attack on the crowded shelter left him with shrapnel wounds in his right eye. After he appeared in a recent video released by Hamas, his family said it was clear he was now partially blind. Three hostages who were held with Mr. Ohel in a tunnel before they were released in February in an emaciated state, said they had all been kept in chains.

Ariel Cunio

Ariel Cunio, 28, was kidnapped along with his partner, Arbel Yehud, from their home in Nir Oz, a rural community near the Gaza border that was ravaged in the Hamas assault.

“It was our private paradise,” Ms. Yehud, who was released in January, wrote in a Facebook post last month marking Mr. Cunio’s 700th day in captivity. Mr. Cunio’s brother, David Cunio, was also abducted from Nir Oz.

David Cunio

David Cunio, 35, was abducted along with his wife, Sharon Cunio, and their twin daughters, Yuli and Emma, then 3 years old.

Ms. Cunio and the children were released in November 2023. In a video filmed in July, on their fifth birthday, the twins said their wish was for their father to return from Gaza. “It’s always the only wish,” Ms. Cunio said. “There’s nothing else.”

Avinatan Or

Avinatan Or, 32, was abducted alongside his partner, Noa Argamani, from the Nova music festival. Video footage showed gunmen dragging him across a field while Ms. Argamani, who was taken to Gaza on the back of a motorcycle, cried out in desperation.

The Israeli military rescued Ms. Argamani from an apartment in central Gaza in June 2024. Before his abduction, Mr. Or worked for a prominent tech company.

Bar Kupershtein

Bar Kupershtein, 23, was taken from the Nova festival, where he was working as a security guard. He had stayed to help rescue others, according to relatives.

In a recent interview published by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, Mr. Kupershtein’s aunt, Ora Rubinstein, said she hoped that Mr. Trump would bring the hostages back so that the family could return to some normality.

Bipin Joshi

Bipin Joshi, 24, a student from Nepal, arrived in Israel on a “Learn and Earn” program less than a month before he was abducted from Kibbutz Alumim, a communal village near the Gaza border. The Israeli authorities said they were unable to determine his fate and feared for his life.

On Wednesday, his family released footage of him from Gaza, filmed around November 2023, in which he appeared to be uninjured. His family said in a statement that the footage served as “a confirmation of our steadfast belief that he is alive.”

Eitan Horn

Eitan Horn, 38, was taken from Nir Oz with his older brother, Iair Horn, who was released in February.

Appearing before an Israeli parliamentary committee last month, Iair Horn pleaded for a deal that would release the hostages and end the war. He described being held underground with his brother when a missile fell nearby. As they ran, the tunnel nearly collapsed on them, he said. When Eitan could not run anymore, Iair said he dragged him along in the direction their captors ordered them to go.

Eitan Mor

Eitan Mor, 25, was taken from the Nova festival, where he was working as a security guard. Witnesses said he worked to evacuate casualties during the assault.

In a video filmed last year, his mother, Efrat Mor, said that sometime before the October 2023 attack, the subject of kidnapping had come up in conversation around their Sabbath table. She related that Mr. Mor had said at the time that should he ever be abducted, he would not want to be exchanged for Palestinians convicted of terrorism.

Elkana Bohbot

Elkana Bohbot, 36, was abducted from the Nova festival, where he was working in production and stayed to help others instead of escaping, according to his family. He had left his wife, Rivka Bohbot, and son, Reem, then 3, at home.

Speaking at a rally for the hostages in Tel Aviv in February, Ms. Bohbot said her husband had “wanted a happy life for the family, to travel abroad and to bring up Reem with love.”

Evyatar David

Evyatar David, 24, was captured from the Nova festival along with his friend Guy Gilboa-Dalal. Mr. David’s brother, Ilay David, described him as “shy but full of life” and said he had “the soul of a musician” and had played guitar since he was 10.

Addressing the United Nations Security Council in August, Ilay David cited medical experts as saying that video footage of his brother released by Hamas showed that he had lost nearly half his body weight.

Nimrod Cohen

Nimrod Cohen was a 19-year-old conscript on guard duty with his tank crew near the Gaza border on Oct. 7, 2023, when his tank malfunctioned and he was taken alive into the enclave. The rest of the crew was killed.

Mr. Cohen’s mother, Viki Cohen, told The New York Times this week that Mr. Cohen was sensitive and nature-loving and had an inner calm and “a rich inner world,” which she hoped had helped him in captivity.

Gali Berman and Ziv Berman

Gali and Ziv Berman are 28-year-old twin brothers who were abducted from Kfar Aza along with their friend and neighbor Emily Damari. Ms. Damari was released in January.

She said after her release that Gali had run to her house on the morning of the attack because she was afraid to be alone. The twins were separated on their first day in Gaza, she said.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal

Guy Gilboa-Dalal, 24, was kidnapped from the Nova festival.

He has appeared in at least two videos released by Hamas: one in February, which showed him and Evyatar David being forced to watch the release of other hostages, and one in September, which showed him alongside Alon Ohel. Such videos are produced under extreme duress, and human rights group say they constitute a war crime.

Maxim Herkin

Maxim Herkin, 37, immigrated to Israel from Ukraine and lived with his family in the northern town of Tirat Carmel before the attack. He was kidnapped from the Nova festival, which The Times of Israel reported he had decided to attend at the last minute.

At the time of his abduction he had a 3-year-old daughter and was the family breadwinner for his mother and brother, according to The Times of Israel.

Matan Angrest

Matan Angrest, 22, was a soldier in the Israeli Army and was kidnapped from his tank during a battle with Hamas fighters near the Gaza border, according to Ron Krivoi, another hostage who was released in November 2023.

Since Mr. Angrest was kidnapped, his mother, Anat Angrest, has been an activist for the release of the hostages and a vocal critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

Matan Zangauker

Matan Zangauker, 25, lived in Nir Oz with his girlfriend, Ilana Gritzewsky. They were both kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, but Ms. Gritzewsky was released during a cease-fire that November.

Mr. Zangauker’s mother, Einav, has been a fierce critic of the Israeli government since Mr. Zangauker’s capture. In a letter to Mr. Netanyahu, she told him: “I will personally haunt you if my Matan comes home in a body bag.”

Omri Miran

Omri Miran, 48, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz by Hamas militants who left his wife, Lishay Miran-Lavi, and two small children, Roni, 5, and Alma, 2, behind.

Ms. Miran-Lavi has not returned to their ruined house, but she told the BBC this year that she sometimes went back to the kibbutz to be closer to Gaza, which is just under a half mile away, and to feel closer to her husband.

Rom Braslavski

Rom Braslavski, 21, was working as a security guard at the Nova festival when he was kidnapped, according to Haaretz.

He was last seen in August in a video released by Palestinian Islamic Jihad that showed him looking emaciated and frail. The video, which was made under extreme duress, caused anguish and outrage in Israel.

Segev Kalfon

Segev Kalfon, 27, was kidnapped as he tried to escape the Nova festival.

His family traveled to New York last year on a religious mission organized by Chabad Lubavitch, a Hasidic Jewish group based in Brooklyn, to pray at the gravesite of the Lubavitcher spiritual leader, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, known as the Rebbe.

Tamir Nimrodi

Tamir Nimrodi, 20, is a soldier who was kidnapped from a military base near Gaza during the October 2023 attack. He was kidnapped along with two army friends whose remains were later returned to Israel for burial.

Israeli media reported earlier this year that officials feared Mr. Nimrodi might have died in captivity. But the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said there had been no definitive evidence that he was either alive or dead.

Yosef-Chaim Ohana

Yosef-Chaim Ohana, 25, was helping injured people flee the Nova festival when he was captured by Hamas, according to Haaretz.

The newspaper said he worked as a bartender in Tel Aviv before the Oct. 7 attack. Earlier this year, he was shown in a video released by Hamas.