Who is Erbil Jew, the Israeli hostage at the heart of the ceasefire conflict?

Erbil Yehud is the Israeli hostage at the heart of the crisis that is testing the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. She was seized during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, from her home in Nir Oz, a village in southern Israel near the Palestinian border.

Ms. Yehud, who was 28 at the time, was kidnapped along with her accomplice Ariel Kunio, who also remained in Gaza.

Ms. Yehud is the last civilian hostage that Israel believes is likely alive. Another civilian woman, Sherry Bibas, remains in Gaza after being kidnapped from Nir Oz with her two young sons, Ariel, who was 4 years old at the time, and Kfir, who was 9 months old. The Israeli army has expressed grave concern for the lives of Ms. Bibas and her children, although their deaths have not been confirmed.

Ms. Yehud’s brother, Dolev Yehud, has been missing for several months and is also presumed to have been kidnapped. It later emerged that he had never reached Gaza: in June 2024, Israeli authorities declared him dead after his remains in Nir Oz were identified through new tests.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Ms. Yehud should have been among the first two groups of hostages to be released on January 19 and 25, according to Israeli authorities. Israel had demanded the release of its civilian women before the captive female soldiers. Four of them were released on Saturday.

It appears that Ms. Yehud may be being held by another group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. An official with this group told the New York Times on Sunday that she will be released before next Saturday.

After midnight on Monday, Israel, Qatar and Hamas announced that a decision had been finalized to release Erbil Jews and two other Israeli hostages by next Friday, with three more hostages to be released on Saturday. In return, Israel will begin allowing Palestinians in Gaza who were displaced to return to the northern Strip, according to officials.

Ms. Yehud has deep roots in the Nir Oz community as a third-generation member of her family to reside there, according to the Forum of Hostages and Missing Families, a grassroots organization advocating for the release of hostages. She worked in the community education system before becoming a mentor at GrooveTech, an innovative educational center in southern Israel focused on space exploration and technology.

Ms. Yehud and Mr. Cuneo had returned from a tour of South America shortly before the 2023 attack, according to the forum.

Nir Oz did Become a symbol From the catastrophe of the Israeli army, intelligence and government that led to the attack and failed to protect the country’s citizens that day. It was a small kibbutz, or communal village, with a population of about 400 people before the attack, during which more than a quarter of its population was killed or kidnapped.

Speaking at a protest on behalf of female hostages in New York in December, Leanne Weiss, a relative of Ms. Yehud, called for their release. “Please close your eyes for a moment and imagine: Imagine that it is you. You have been taken away from your home,” she said. “We cannot allow this to become theirs forever.” Every moment we delay is another moment of agony for these women. We must act. “We have the power to change their fate.”