Celebrates 40th birthday

Austrian hostage held by Hamas for 500 days

The Austrian-Israeli dual national Tal Shoham will spend his 40th birthday in captivity on Thursday. He was one of around 250 hostages kidnapped by Hamas from Israel on October 7, 2023.

Since then, he has been held at an unknown location in the Palestinian territory. However, Tal Shoham's 40th birthday is likely to be the last he spends in Gaza. He is on the list of 33 hostages to be released under the agreement between the Israeli government and Hamas. It is assumed that he will not return to Israel until mid-February at the earliest. Women, children, the elderly and the injured will be the first to go.

His five-year-old daughter sent a message to her father on Wednesday. "She tells him how much she loves him and how long she has been waiting for him," it says. According to his family, Shoham has been held by Hamas for 480 days. He was abducted together with several family members. His wife and two young children, who are German citizens, and other relatives were released on November 25, 2023.

The released female soldiers with Hamas fighters at the handover(Bild: AP/Abed Hajjar)

Released civilians(Bild: AFP/APA/Israeli Army)

Totem's brother proposes exchange
On Monday, the Israeli government announced that eight of the 33 hostages were already dead. However, the brother of a presumed dead hostage said that the return of surviving hostages was more important than the handover of dead bodies. He suggested handing over a living hostage to Israel instead of the body of his relative. "Leave the dead and bring eight live hostages in their place. Take them out of hell".

The current first phase of the ceasefire is to last six weeks. The conditions for the second phase have yet to be negotiated. Since the agreement, seven hostages have been released so far: three civilians and four young female soldiers. In return, the Israeli authorities are releasing Palestinians from prisons, most recently 290.