Israelis Have Three Different Words for “Hostages”

In English, we speak of the hostages in Gaza. In Hebrew, Israelis have three different words for them. One, b’nei-arubah, is the standard Hebrew term for “hostages.” A literal translation of it might be “warrantables,” that is, persons imprisoned by a side to a dispute as warranties that the other side will tread carefully or honor its commitments. It is a shortened form of the biblical b’nei-ta’aruvot, which has regularly been rendered as “hostages” from the days of the King James Version. (See, for instance, 2Kings 14:14).

A second Hebrew word used for those abducted to Gaza is shvuyim. A shavuy—the word is biblical, too—is a prisoner taken in war or by some other act of violence, especially for the purpose of being held for ransom. The supreme importance placed by Jewish law and custom on pidyon shvuyim, the redemption or ransoming of such victims, who would also be called “hostages” in English, has been cited endlessly since last October 7.

But the term most frequently used by Israelis for the Gaza hostages is neither of these. It is rather ḥatufim, or more commonly, when accompanied by the definite article, ha-ḥatufim. The literal meaning of ḥatuf, a noun derived from the verb ḥataf, to grab or to snatch, is “a snatched one [or thing],” and while the word can denote anything thus obtained, it has the specific sense when referring to a person of someone kidnapped or abducted. Used in this way, it also has a specific historical background—and while I haven’t seen or heard this background discussed in regard to the Gaza hostages, it is perhaps not unrelated to their plight.