Talk:List of Gaza war hostages

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The road to Featured List

First of all, thanks everyone again for your valuable contributions and maintenance. I could not have done this all alone and appreciate all the help. Also I appreciate and commend those who have taken the initiative to create hostage articles. Keep an eye out for any challenges to these. Some challenges may be legitimate, some may be questionable. In any respect, most of the heavy lifting is done, we just need to fill out the rest of the table to the extent possible, namely photos that are usable. I have not gotten around to it yet, but I will soon contact the hostage groups for help with that.

WP:FLCR states:

1. Prose. It features professional standards of writing.  Done
2. Lead. It has an engaging lead that introduces the subject and defines the scope and inclusion criteria. Not sure
3. Comprehensiveness. Partly done
   • (a) It comprehensively covers the defined scope, providing at least all of the major items and, where practical, a complete set of items; where appropriate, it has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about the items.  Done
   • (b) statements are sourced where they appear, and they provide inline citations if they contain any of the four kinds of material absolutely required to have citations. Partly done
   • (c) In length and/or topic, it meets all of the requirements for stand-alone lists and includes at minimum eight items; does not violate the content-forking guideline, does not largely duplicate material from another article, and could not reasonably be included as part of a related article.  Done IMO
4. Structure. It is easy to navigate and includes, where helpful, section headings and table sort facilities. Partly done: needs sortable question resolved
5. Style. It complies with the Manual of Style and its supplementary pages. Partly done
   • (a) Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting, tables, and colour; and a minimal proportion of items are redlinked. Partly done: main issue is redlinks, which will be resolved.
   • (b) Media files. It has images and other media, if appropriate to the topic, that follow Wikipedia's usage policies, with succinct captions. Non-free images and other media satisfy the criteria for the inclusion of non-free content and are labeled accordingly. Partly done: ongoing effort to get pictures for every hostage.
   • (c) Accessibility. It uses proper formating to be accessible to all readers. Bulleted and unbulleted lists and tables are structured correctly. Visual media, if included, utilize alternative (alt) text. Not sure: Ill need to check screen reading.
6. Stability. It is not the subject of ongoing edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured list process.  Done

Points in my madeup value scale:

• 6/36
• 0/36
• 5/36
• 3/36
• 2/36
• 6/36

22/36 = 61%

I would like to get this featured on October 7, 2026, so we have time, but cant let it escape us. I have to look over the lede and prose, but wanted to get an idea for where it stands for now. I will also look at past featured lists to see what works. It looks like there isnt a featured list every day, so once we meet the criteria, we should get that date. There is also a recommended peer review process.

Thanks again, everyone! ← Metallurgist (talk) 02:14, 17 December 2025 (UTC)

@Metallurgist

For visual appeal, should the list be color coded by method of release?

Maybe something like this:

Red: Still Held

Orange: Returned in Deal, Did Not Survive

Yellow: Body recovered by IDF, did not survive

Light Green: Released unilaterally alive

Dark Green: Rescued Alive

Blue: Released in November 2023 deal alive

Purple: Released in January 2025 deal alive

Pink: Releases in October 2025 deal alive EaglesFan37 (talk) 20:59, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

Hmm maybe something to consider, but its already in release order. Maybe something along those lines but fewer colors. I can try and look at some ideas. I might sandbox it so as not to disrupt the page. ← Metallurgist (talk) 22:54, 25 December 2025 (UTC)

@Metallurgist It's been around two months and there is still many things that need to be done. I've found several of the remaining birthdays on social media, but I don't think I can add them unsourced. Many pictures are still needed, but I doubt that any usable ones are left on Wikimedia that I haven't already seen. EaglesFan37 (talk) 06:03, 24 February 2026 (UTC)

@EaglesFan37 I am (finally) reaching out to the hostage orgs to get more pictures and information. ← Metallurgist (talk) 21:48, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist Any updates in this regard? EaglesFan37 (talk) 18:14, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

@EaglesFan37 I got bogged down with life, I have to check my emails to see where I left off. I think I did email the followup group, or maybe I did not get around to that. Coming back months later, I can look at this more freshly to see what we need. Thanks again for your stewardship here. ← Metallurgist (talk) 23:39, 22 August 2026 (UTC)

I also need to do a review or two myself I suppose. ← Metallurgist (talk) 23:41, 22 August 2026 (UTC)

Thank you for the update. I've been trying to find photos on Wikimedia commons or birthdays, but only so much is publicly available. EaglesFan37 (talk) 23:49, 22 August 2026 (UTC)

what about switching from birthday to age? it would likely be easier to find that info. plus some of the former hostages might not want their birthdays on wikipedia (see WP:DOB) Rainsage (talk) 15:47, 26 August 2026 (UTC)

@Rainsage yes I was thinking that to reduce clutter before submitting this. Ill get on that. ← Metallurgist (talk) 07:26, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

I did one section to see how it looks. Thoughts? I dont like how wide it is, but Im not sure thats easily fixed. And centering looks to be best vs the default left justify. Appreciate both your thoughts and any others before jumping in fully. ← Metallurgist (talk) 07:42, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist Maybe do birthdays when supported by WP:RS, and ages otherwise?

I'll add sources or remove the birthdays for any unsourced BLPs right now. EaglesFan37 (talk) 08:51, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

i think it's better/simpler to stick with age. but you two's opinion matters more than mine since you've been working on this page much more than me! Rainsage (talk) 23:46, 1 September 2026 (UTC)

I dont think support or lack of is the issue. I had thought awhile ago that it is proving to be clutterous, but didnt act on it. So I find myself agreeing with Rainsage here, altho I am open to either. We can also leave it in the code to allow for easy reversion. What is your reasoning on why we should have the birthdays? And rainsage your thoughts as an outsider minor contributor are valuable. PS: No need to tag me every time. You can if you want, but dont feel obligated. If I havent responded in a few days, then ping or TP me. ← Metallurgist (talk) 07:49, 2 September 2026 (UTC)

Birthdays are the easiest ways to be certain about age. However, some birthdays have slight variations in dates (like 1-2 days), or are definitely correct (are from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum's social media, but not in WP:RS. Another possible issue with ages is that there are some hostages with birthdays right around October 7th, so WP:RS could list them as being older than they actually were, such as with Yarden Bibas here .

Another case is Ofri Brodutch, whose birthday was right around October 7th . The source lists her age as 10, but also says that she turned 10 in captivity (which would mean that her age would be 9 for the list).

Other than that, there aren't really any objections that I have, besides for sunk cost on my end for the amount of time I've spent searching for birthdates lol. EaglesFan37 (talk) 09:31, 2 September 2026 (UTC)

as a reader, i would want to know approximate age at kidnapping more than exact birthday. i think it's okay if the age is approximate; could add a footnote that the ages are approximate and/or do something like "9-10" for cases like Ofri Brodutch. contradictory info published regarding birthdates/ages is fairly common in my experience.

And yeahhhh sorry about your sunk cost if the birthday gets removed lol. Rainsage (talk) 08:25, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

@Rainsage No worries lol. Whatever is best for the article.

When we do get started, I'd recommend just turning the birthdays that are already sourced into ages, and using the Times of Israel hostage profiles for the rest. EaglesFan37 (talk) 08:40, 3 September 2026 (UTC)

that makes sense to me! Rainsage (talk) 03:48, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

I’ll take care of the ages tomorrow, then. EaglesFan37 (talk) 07:31, 8 September 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist@Rainsage

I converted all of the birthdays to ages and added the ages of all Israeli hostages released alive sans two.

Sourcing differs on whether Margalit Moses was 77 or 78, and sourcing differs on whether Ori Megidish was 18 or 19.

I'll look for definitive ages for Thai hostages next (although I'm not sure if those have been definitively published anywhere). EaglesFan37 (talk) 14:31, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

I added ages for most of the Thai hostages released alive. Surasak Rumnao's age at abduction isn't entirely clear (either 30 or 31, but not apparent which). The other Thai hostages don't have an age listed on WP:RS that I can find.

I'll converted the birthdays of the deceased hostages into ages later today. EaglesFan37 (talk) 15:41, 9 September 2026 (UTC)

ok looks good! do you want to put 77-78 for Margalit Moses, 18-19 for Ori Megidish, etc.? Rainsage (talk) 04:41, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

I think I can likely figure it out. With Margalit Moses, the sources immediately before/after her release said she was 78, but in interviews afterwards, she was 77. I think that 77 is likely the correct age, but want to do further research tomorrow to verify everything.

As for Ori Megidish, I think she may have turned 19 while in captivity. However, since she was rescued within the first month of the war (and since there were 251 hostage abducted, along with a bunch of other people still missing at that point, I don't believe she received a lot of coverage until then). Thus, I'm not entirely certain if she was 18 on the day of the attack or not. I lean towards her being 18, but not enough for me to conclusive make a call yet. I should be able to after further research tomorrow. EaglesFan37 (talk) 05:12, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Red links to names with a (hostage) disambiguator

I have just had a discussion involving @EaglesFan37, @Metallurgist, and @Rosguill at Talk:Amit Soussana (hostage) about having the suffix "(hostage)" as a parenthetical disambiguator on the red links to the biographies of hostages who have Hebrew articles, but not English ones. I think this disambiguator is unnecessary as it prevents the discovery of pre-existing biographies and redirects. Creating disambiguated red links is discouraged, according to the guidelines and the Manual of Style advises to either not have them or create an article. Like articles, the links for people with non-existent biographies should comply with biographical naming conventions, which is to name people by their first and last names, and only use title disambiguation if two or more people have names that could be confused. Parenthetical disambiguation is a last resort and the word "hostage" as a disambiguating term is inappropriate as it only describes a transitory state for the short period of their lives. I think the hostage label is also a controversial one, and should not be used by default. For example: the term "lawyer" would have been a better disambiguator for Amit Soussana, if she needed one, because that describes her chosen career. I do not think any of this article's red links need "(hostage)" included in the link. Why is it there? - Cameron Dewe (talk) 21:31, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@Cameron Dewe As explained on the other talk page, this was a workaround to show a redlink for topics that have articles in other languages. See Template:ill. This indicates that an article is desired and could be translated from the language given. Because of the existence of the redirects, if we linked to those, it would create a blue link and the IL link and either the bot would mistakenly remove the IL link, or editors would not realize that there is actually no article there. Also, the redirects redirect back to the page, so that is pointless and I think a policy violation. In short, the parenthesis are not intended to actually be used in page creation, they are just used to force a red link. ← Metallurgist (talk) 21:56, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

I will see what options there are to fix this. you do have a valid point and what we have here isnt ideal. ← Metallurgist (talk) 22:18, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist: I think I understand your dilemma. The {{ill}} template assumes that the English language Wikipedia article does not exist, when an article in a foreign language Wikipedia does exist, which means there is no place to connect the interlanguage link. One an English language Wikipedia article is crealted, a place exists to link from a foreign language article, even if it is a redirect. Already, an article has been created for Yosef Ohana (hostage) and moved to Yosef Ohana on the grounds that the disambiguation is unnecessary, while an article for has been created under the title Eitan Mor (hostage) before being copied and pasted to the article titled Eitan Mor, over a redirect that already existed. Clearly, the suffix "(hostage)" is causing issued for other editors, too, and should be removed. If an article does not exist then the disambiguator is not needed. If a redirect has been created for the article, then perhaps a notice to expand the article from the Hebrew can be put above redirect link, to create a soft redirect and provide a place to hang the Inter-language wiki links, and create an article from what is essentially a pre-stub. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 00:24, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

OK, I have created soft redirects for several articles and think I understand what is happening. Inter-Language links are held in the WikiData repository. For example the English Wikipedia article about Shlomi Ziv is (now) associated with WikiData item Q135934215, as is the corresponding Hebrew article, שלומי זיו . Each Wikidata entry can only have one entry in each language, so if the English language article is a redirect, then the WikiData item needs to be tagged as an intentional redirect in order to have the Inter-Language link. It is probably also best to start from the Hebrew link and add the English redirect afterwards. This is probably something that needs to be done in the WikiData. It may also help if the redirect is to an anchor in the article, not just to the head of the article. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 04:28, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

@Cameron Dewe Im not sure this solution is much or any better. Now its impossible to see easily which hostage links have foreign language articles, which could be used. You would have to click every such hostage. Also, some of the redirects will end up redirecting back to the list, even if its a soft redirect. This merited more discussion to find a workable solution, so please revert what you did. I agree the disambiguator wasnt ideal, but I think this may be worse. There is actually a better workaround mentioned on the ILL page where you hardcode the bracketed language link. ← Metallurgist (talk) 16:16, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist: I think an an anonymous user has possibly found a solution. They reversed the placements of the redirect and Expand template and the interlanguage link in brackets ( like[he], or [fr]) in the English article has come back. However, the inter-lanuage link in the foreign language article remains, but the English article remains a redirect. If the redirect is converted to an article, I suspect the little [he] flag will disappear. At least now you can see which article links are redirects, now. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 23:55, 7 January 2026 (UTC)

@Cameron Dewe@Metallurgist

I'm not entirely sure how I would format this, but there is a new Hebrew language article for Yocheved Lifshitz: EaglesFan37 (talk) 01:32, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

@EaglesFan37: There is currently a redirect from Yocheved Lifshitz to List of Gaza war hostages. The WikiData item corresponding to the Hebrew article about Yocheved Lifshitz is Q137806570. I have added an English interlanguage link to the Hebrew article. Just link to the English Language article and expand it from the Hebrew. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 06:56, 7 February 2026 (UTC)

Hostage lists

Is it possible to enable the orders to be changed? It would be useful to be able see them in date order 20 October 2023 - 13 October 2025 as well as 13 October 2025 - 20 October 2023, in nationality order, and "Kidnapped from" order. Mcljlm (talk) 21:30, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

@Mcljlm Do you mean making it sortable with the little arrows like on other tables? It is coded with that in mind, but there are a few issues that need to be resolved to make sure it works correctly. I will get to that before this is submitted to FL. ← Metallurgist (talk) 21:49, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

That is what I mean. Mcljlm (talk) 00:19, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

@Mcljlm I have to make some more changes, but that will be activated at some point. I will notify you when it is. ← Metallurgist (talk) 23:42, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

Aviva Siegel

She has written a book, which may help with notability in the near future. ← Metallurgist (talk) 23:41, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist

It may be worthwhile in the near future to have a list/table of which of the hostages would meet WP:GNG. There's a bunch of hostages without Wikipedia articles on any of the language wikis that could likely have articles that could pass (Doron Steinbrecher, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Keith Siegel, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Moran Stella Yanai, Maya Regev, Eden Yerushalmi, etc.). And there are still around a dozen articles from other language wikis as well (think another user was translating some of them into English a few months back). EaglesFan37 (talk) 00:01, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

@EaglesFan37 Yea I still need to do that. Thats was planned months ago. Heck, this article was planned in 2023, but I never got around to making it until finally last year because I couldnt find a comprehensive source at the time and was busier than I am now. I think Ill have the capacity to jump on this soon. I do want to get it finished up in the next month or two. I have to follow up on the photos as well... ← Metallurgist (talk) 00:14, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist

About the photos, do you know if fair use photos from other wikipedia articles are acceptable to use? EaglesFan37 (talk) 16:43, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

I think we would have to reapply for fair use. I am not sure how that works. I tried adding some from BLP articles and they got removed. ← Metallurgist (talk) 21:33, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist

The thing about the hostages is that the majority of them likely have received enough coverage for WP:GNG, so it's just about whether someone decides to make their articles or not.

Right now, there's a RM for many of the hostage pages regarding name, so I'm holding off on creating any hostage articles until that's resolved.

Every living Israeli hostage released in ceasefire deals in 2025 most likely has enough coverage for WP:GNG, and several of the hostage released in November 2023 may as well (Moran Stella Yanai, Doron Asher-Katz, Yaffa Adar, Elma Avraham, Goldstein-Almog family) EaglesFan37 (talk) 15:48, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

@EaglesFan37 Oh thats good to know, I am behind a bit on things. Ill have to look at that. This was always an evolving situation. I would agree most or all do, but additional things like writing a book helps immensely to sustain that. ← Metallurgist (talk) 02:45, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist

Whether they have articles or not fully depends on whether anyone just happens to take the time to write them or not. To be honest, the sheer number of possible candidates to choose to write an article for is a bit overwhelming to even figure out where to start at this point. EaglesFan37 (talk) 02:58, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Ive always picked articles that speak to me or mean something, or I feel are needed. ← Metallurgist (talk) 03:04, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

@Metallurgist I will say that Doron Steinbrecher and Guy Gilboa-Dalal are likely the next candidates for articles without any concerns (such as whether the page should be combined with other relatives abducted). EaglesFan37 (talk) 03:10, 22 April 2026 (UTC)