Hamas released a group of 12 hostages on Tuesday, most of them Israelis or dual nationals but also including two Thai nationals, all of whom had been kidnapped during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
It was the fifth group to be released since Friday, when a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas went into effect.
Here’s what we know about the Israeli hostages released on Tuesday.
Clara Marman, 63; Mia Leimberg, 17; Gabriela Leimberg, 59
Ms. Marman, 63, a member of Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was taken hostage on Oct. 7, along with her partner, Luis Norberto Har, and three visiting family members: a brother, Fernando Marman, 60; a sister, Gabriela Leimberg, 59; and Ms. Leimberg’s 17-year-old daughter, Mia Leimberg, a high school senior who lives in Jerusalem.
Moshe Leimberg, Gabriela’s husband and Mia’s father, stayed home in Jerusalem that day because he had the flu.
In a notice he posted on LinkedIn, Mr. Leimberg said that since Oct. 7, he had heard nothing from or about his wife and daughter. “Not a word, not a picture,” he wrote. “They just disappeared, leaving behind a few scattered personal effects, almost as if they never existed.”
Their absence, he said, “has left a gaping hole.”
Gabriela Leimberg is the manager of a day-care center for youth adults with autism. The organization, Shekel, has pleaded for the family’s release.
Mia Leimberg, who is known for her singing voice, has studied at the Jersualem High School of the Arts, and also worked at a bookshop, according to the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum. The family dog was taken with the family; on Tuesday, videos on local news outlets showed Mia carrying a dog as she approached the International Committee of the Red Cross vehicles.
A banner hanging at Mia’s high school reads, “We’re waiting for you, Mia, to come back.”
Mr. Har and Mr. Marman are still believed to remain in Gaza.
Ditza Heiman, 84
Ditza Heiman, 84, was one of the first members of Kibbutz Nir Oz and had spent her entire adult life at the kibbutz, her son, Gideon Heiman, said at a news conference held by the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum earlier this month.
Ms. Heiman, who worked as a social worker, retired just before she turned 80, Mr. Heiman said. “She spent her whole life helping people and helping take care of people,” he said.
Ms. Heiman requires anticoagulant medication and suffered from a pulmonary embolism in the past, Dr. Sharon Kleitman, the family physician of Kibbutz Nir Oz, said at the same news conference.
“My mother is not a healthy woman, and she needs medicine,” Mr. Heiman said.
When the family tried to call Ms. Heiman on the day of the attack, someone picked up and said, “It’s Hamas,” her daughter, Neta Heiman, said in a video posted by the forum.
“When I envision my mother there, she’s taking care of everyone,” Ms. Heiman said in the video, adding: “That’s my mother. She’ll take care of everyone if she only can. If they only let her.”
“My mother, and many of her friends on Kibbutz Nir Oz who were massacred, were people of peace,” Neta Heiman said in an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, adding, “All that my mother and her friends wanted was to live in peace in the small Eden they had built there in the desert.”
Tamar Metzger, 78
Tamar Metzger, 78, was taken hostage along with her husband, Yoram Metzger, from Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, according to a report in the Times of Israel. The couple has three children and seven grandchildren.
She had worked in the kibbutz nursery and ran the general store, but in recent years had been a full-time grandmother, spending a lot of time caring for her grandchildren, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
Tamar has limited mobility, according to the forum, and spends a lot of time on her balcony, reading, doing crossword puzzles and smoking cigarettes.
Her husband is believed to remain in Gaza.
Noralin Babadila, 60
Noralin Babadila, 60, was visiting friends at Kibbutz Nirim on Oct. 7, when terrorists attacked, killing her partner, Gideon Babani, and taking her hostage. The kibbutz was celebrating the anniversary of its founding that weekend.
Ms. Babadila was born in the Philippines but lived in Yehud, a city in central Israel. She spoke with her brother by telephone in the early morning of Oct. 7 and told him that she was scared and that she might not return, according to a report in The Times of Israel.
Ada Sagi, 75
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