How many hostages are left in Gaza?

JERUSALEM (AP) — Hamas freed six Israelis on Saturday in the last scheduled release of living hostages by the militant group under the current stage of a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

In all, a total of 33 Israelis are being freed during this stage — including eight who are dead. Five Thai hostages have also been freed separately. Sixty-three hostages, including the body of a soldier held since 2014, remain in Gaza.

The remains of four Israeli hostages have been returned in a transfer that was marred when Hamas handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys abducted by militants. After a tense standoff, her remains were returned and identified early Saturday.

The final four sets of remains are expected to be returned in the coming days.

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. More than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Israel is releasing nearly 2,000 prisoners and detainees during the first phase of the ceasefire in exchange for the hostages.

Here are details on the hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023:

Total captured: 251

Hostages released in exchanges or other deals: 141, of whom 4 were dead

Hostages still in captivity: 62, of whom Israel has declared 35 to be dead

Hostages in captivity who are soldiers: 13, of whom Israel has declared 7 to be dead

Bodies of hostages retrieved by Israeli troops: 40

Hostages rescued alive: 8

Non-Israelis still in captivity: 5 ( 3 Thais, 1 Nepalese, 1 Tanzanian), of whom 2 (1 Thai and 1 Nepalese) are believed to still be alive

Separately:

Hostages released who were held before Oct. 7, 2023: 2

Meanwhile, Israel retrieved the body of one soldier held in Gaza since he was killed in the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. The body of a second soldier killed in 2014 remains in Gaza.

This story has been updated to correct the number of hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, who remain in captivity. It is 62, not 61. It also corrects the number of those in captivity Israel has declared dead. The number is 35.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Israelis watch on a live broadcast as the first two of six hostages to be released in Gaza by Palestinian militants are handed over to the Red Cross, in 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israelis watch on a live broadcast as the first two of six hostages to be released in Gaza by Palestinian militants are handed over to the Red Cross, in 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israeli hostages Tal Shoham left, and Avera Mengisto are escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli hostage Omer Shem, centre, is escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli hostage Eliya Cohen, centre, is escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli hostage Omer Wenkert, centre, is escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Israeli hostages Eliya Cohen, left, and Omer Shem Tov are escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinian fighters stand next to a coffin containing the body of Oded Lifshitz, as the remains of four bodies are handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Israel has identified three of the bodies as hostages and said the other was of an unknown person. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A woman holds two children at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, after Palestinian militant groups handed over four bodies to the Red Cross in Gaza. Israel has identified three of the bodies as hostages and said the other was of an unknown person. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A man holds a teddy bear at the so-called 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, after the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children, were handed over by Palestinian militant groups to the Red Cross in Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Palestinian fighters stand next to a coffin containing the body of Oded Lifshitz, one of four Israeli hostages, to hand it over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

A militant stands next to the coffins containing the bodies of hostages, from right to left, Shiri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir and Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when he was abducted before their are handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

A woman reacts at the so-called 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, as the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children, are handed over by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

An Israeli soldier holds his cellphone as he walks into "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, as Palestinian militant groups hand over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children, to the Red Cross in Gaza.(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A woman holds two children at "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, after Palestinian militant groups handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children, to the Red Cross in Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

A woman reacts as a convoy carrying the coffins containing the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children, just handed over by Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, drives by a road near Kibbutz Reim, southern Israel, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025.(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

A man holds a teddy bear at the so-called 'Hostages Square' in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, after the bodies of four Israeli hostages, including a mother and her two children, were handed over by Palestinian militant groups to the Red Cross in Gaza. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israeli captive, Eli Sharabi, who has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since October 7, 2023, stands on a stage escorted by Hamas fighters before being handed over to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Saturday Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

People attend a rally calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in front of the U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, ahead of the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Two former attorneys and an aide who all worked on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign were scheduled to appear Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.

The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.

The hearing comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he can’t get a fair trial.

Here's the latest:

The fight over California’s new congressional map designed to help Democrats flip congressional House seats will go to court Monday as a panel of federal judges considers whether the district boundaries approved by voters last month can be used in elections.

The hearing in Los Angeles sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight between the Trump administration and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s been eyeing a 2028 presidential run. The lawsuit asks a three-judge panel to grant a temporary restraining order by Dec. 19 — the date candidates can take the first official steps to run in the 2026 election.

Voters approved California’s new U.S. House map in November through Proposition 50. It’s designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats in the midterm elections next year. It was Newsom’s response to a Republican-led effort in Texas backed by President Donald Trump.

▶ Read more about California’s redistricting effort

Even though Republican Brian Jack is only a first-term congressman, he has become a regular in the Oval Office these days. As the top recruiter for his party’s House campaign team, the Georgia native is often reviewing polling and biographies of potential candidates with Trump.

Lauren Underwood, an Illinois congresswoman who does similar work for Democrats, has no such West Wing invitation. She is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue working the phones to identify and counsel candidates she hopes can erase Republicans’ slim House majority in November’s midterm elections.

Although they have little in common, both lawmakers were forged by the lessons of 2018, when Democrats flipped dozens of Republican-held seats to turn the rest of Trump’s first term into a political crucible. Underwood won her race that year, and Jack became responsible for dealing with the fallout when he became White House political director a few months later.

Underwood wants a repeat in 2026, and Jack is trying to stand in her way.

▶ Read more about Underwood and Jack

The Arizona Democrat is emerging as a crucial surrogate for a party desperately seeking to win back the Latino support that slipped in 2024 with the election of President Trump. His fall travels have included trips to New Jersey, Virginia and Florida, where he campaigned for Democrats who went on to win their elections. Strategists say Gallego is flexing his muscle as a rising star for the party while also laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run despite not being a household name like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It’s a role Gallego is expected to continue next year, when Democrats hope to break Republicans’ hold on Congress and counter Trump’s agenda.

“Ruben Gallego is going to be our not-so-secret, secret weapon,” said Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic operative and member of the Democratic National Committee.

Gallego is among the Democrats named as possible 2028 contenders who had the busiest travel calendar in 2025. He stumped for Democratic female candidates in New Jersey’s and Virginia’s gubernatorial races and Miami’s mayoral race.

▶ Read more about Gallego

Trump said Saturday that “there will be very serious retaliation” after two U.S. service members and one American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blames on the Islamic State group.

“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” he said in a social media post.

The American president told reporters at the White House that Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was “devastated by what happened” and stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops. Trump, in his post, said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”

U.S. Central Command said three service members were also wounded in the ambush Saturday by a lone IS member in central Syria. Trump said the three “seem to be doing pretty well.” The U.S. military said the gunman was killed in the attack. Syrian officials said the attack wounded members of Syria’s security forces as well.

▶ Read more about the attack

Two former attorneys and an aide who all worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign were scheduled to appear Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.

The hearing on Monday comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who was joined by the other two defendants in his motion, alleged that the judge did not write a previous order issued in August declining to dismiss the case. Instead, he accused the father of the judge’s law clerk, who was a retired judge, of actually writing the opinion.

Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he can’t get a fair trial.

▶ Read more about the hearing

President Donald Trump talks to reporters as arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, after attending the Army-Navy game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Washington, en route to Baltimore to attend the Army-Navy football game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)