"Dreamed of coming home": hostages in safety
For seven weeks, the four-year-old German girl was in the hands of Hamas terrorists. Now Raz sits tightly embraced with her father, mother and two-year-old sister on a hospital bed in Israel. "I dreamt that I was coming home," she says to her father Joni. He replies: "Now your dream has come true." Staff at the clinic documented the emotional reunion.
Together with her mother Doron and sister Aviv, Raz was abducted in the Islamist massacre in the Gaza Strip on October 7. At the weekend, her father was finally able to hold her in his arms again. When the three of them were abducted while visiting their grandmother in the border area, he was more than a hundred kilometers away. He found out about the hostage-taking through a video that was later circulated in the Gaza Strip. Now the fear for the lives of his loved ones has come to an end.
200 people still being held
Raz, Doron and Aviv are among the dozens of hostages who were released at the weekend as part of an agreement between Israel and Hamas. Around 200 other abductees are still being held in the Gaza Strip.
"I am happy to have my family back," says the father in a video message. "But I'm not celebrating, I won't celebrate until the last of the hostages has returned home." It is unclear whether the remaining hostages are still alive or under what conditions they are on the ground. "There are still people who are heartbroken," says Joni, referring to the many families who are still hoping for a sign of life from their loved ones.
In the coming days, more hostages could be released in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners. An agreement brokered by Qatar provides for a possible extension of the current four-day ceasefire to up to 10 days. In return, Israel expects the release of up to 80 abductees. Whether an extension will come about is uncertain.
Shaky agreement
Just how shaky the agreement is became clear at the weekend. Hamas surprisingly stopped the handover of around 20 hostages at the last minute on Saturday. Israel was not fulfilling its part of the agreement sufficiently, it said. The country rejected this. After mediation by Qatar, the hostages were finally released hours later. For relatives, these were terrible hours of uncertainty. Israel's military spokesman spoke of psychological warfare by Hamas. "Nothing has happened until it has happened," he said about the releases and warned against trusting Hamas.
It is also unclear what the hostage-taking has done to the people in the long term. The returnees are expected to remain in hospital for several days for treatment. Special teams there have also been trained to deal with children. According to doctors, the hostages are physically well so far. But Joni also knows that this can be deceptive. "There are still difficult days ahead of me," says Joni. He is determined to help his family "recover from the terrible trauma and loss we have suffered - for the future of my daughters and my wife".
Relatives of those released report
Joni's wife lost her mother in the Hamas massacre on October 7, and his two daughters lost their grandmother. She was one of around 1200 people murdered by terrorists that day. Her partner is still believed to be in the Gaza Strip. It is unclear whether the children and Joni's wife knew about the death before they were released - including how much information they received in the Gaza Strip about the massacre. They initially did not want to appear in public.
According to an Israeli television station, relatives of other released people reported on the situation on the ground. "There were days when there were no supplies, so they only ate pita bread. They were not tortured, but there were days when they hardly had anything to eat, in the last few days they ate very little rice," a relative of nine-year-old Ohad told Channel 12. Ohad was released with his mother and grandmother on Friday. The boy's grandfather remained in the hands of the terrorists.
A video shows Ohad running towards his father in the hospital. He holds him tightly and kisses him on the neck. In other shots, the boy sits surrounded by friends and eats an ice cream. Even before his release, many Israelis knew Ohad's story. While he was being held in the Gaza Strip, his ninth birthday was celebrated in Tel Aviv. Relatives set up a picture with 1500 Rubik's cubes. Now Ohad can pursue his hobby at home again. He solved his first Rubik's cube after his release in hospital in the presence of his family.
- Despite the release of Raz, Doron, and Aviv, around 200 other hostages are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, leading to ongoing concerns and feelings of uncertainty among their families.
- The conflict between Hamas and Israel continues to affect the lives of numerous individuals, as evidenced by the ongoing hostage situation, with Hamas allegedly preventing the release of approximately 20 people due to perceived inadequacies in Israel's fulfillment of the agreement.
Source: www.dpa.com
