Families reunited at last: The hug that embodied the emotions of a nation
It was a hug that embodied the feelings of a nation.
As nine-year-old Ohad Munder turned a corner inside Israel’s Schneider Medical Centre, he saw his father for the first time in at least 50 days.
He started with a wave, almost nonchalant, in the way boys of that age can be, but then he quickly broke into a sprint down the corridor, crashing into his dad’s open arms.
If the people of Israel know Ohad’s age, it is because only a month ago they were helping to celebrate his birthday - in his absence, while he was being held hostage in Gaza by Hamas.
Yellow balloons inscribed with messages of hope were strewn across his home town of Kfar Saba and others. The supporters who wrote them will have yearned for this moment. Not all will have believed it would happen.
One of the first batch of 13 Israelis to be released under the temporary ceasefire and prisoner-swap deal, Ohad, a Rubik’s cube obsessive, had been provided with one of the puzzles as soon as he was safely in Israeli hands. A photo shows him intently studying it on an evacuation helicopter while wearing a pair of protective earphones.
He walked free late on Friday along with his mother, Karen Munder 54, and 78-year-old grandmother, Ruthi Munder.
They too sank into the arms of their waiting loved-ones, too overcome to say anything much.
There are significant stings in the tail, namely the absence of Avram, Ruthi’s husband and Ohad’s grandfather, who remains a captive of the terrorist group.
Even more so the death of Ruthi’s son, Roy, on Oct 7 during the rampage in the kibbutz of Nir Oz, one of the worst-hit targets of the terror group. It emerged yesterday that she learned the news whilst listening to the radio as a captive of Hamas.
Their reunion with loved-ones was a scene repeated in different forms across the various medical centres tasked with the initial assessments of the hostages’ physical and mental health.
But while some may have required the attention of doctors, for Ohad, good company and a refreshing ice cream was the best medicine. A video showed him surrounded by a group of friends visiting him in hospital, all tucking into ice cream cones.
At the opposite end of the age spectrum was Yaffa Adar, whose stoic expression captured on camera as she was abducted on a golf buggy by heavily armed terrorists came to symbolise Jewish resilience in the minds of many Israelis.
On Saturday she was pictured in a soft chair surrounded by three family members, a glass of water in her hand and a smile on her face.
“The family gathered together to see if it was really happening, and when I saw her on the TV on her own two feet, I was so happy. It was like we had won back Jerusalem,” said her daughter-in-law Yael Adar.
“Since the day she was kidnapped, she doesn’t know much. She doesn’t know anything about the neighbours who were kidnapped or killed, she doesn’t know that her grandson is still being held hostage,” she added.
Yael Adar, the mother of Tamir Adar, 38, who tried to defend the kibbutz of Nir Oz as part of its first responders team, said the family would explain the situation gradually.
The Adars were not the only family for whom the relief of release presaged the learning of bad news.
It was reported on Saturday that Hannah Katzir, 77, only learned that her husband Rami was murdered and her son Elad abducted upon being set free.
Details also emerged about the nerve-wracking journey out of Gaza, with claims that onlookers in the southern city of Khan Younis hurled stones at the van in which the hostages were travelling.
Conditions they were held in
New details about the conditions in which the hostages were held also came to light.
One relative of a hostage was quoted as saying: “At first they were held with a few [other hostages], and then they added even more. At a certain point they lost electricity. Ohad learned a few words in English and Arabic. The conditions weren’t good - they slept on plastic benches; 80-year-olds without mattresses.”
For Yoni Asher, whose wife Doron Katz Asher and two daughters, four-year-old Raz and Aviv, two, were taken on Oct 7, the relief was overwhelming as he greeted the three.
A heartwarming clip showed him hugging his wife and daughters as he said: “My dearest girl, my beautiful girl. Did you miss me? Were you thinking about Daddy?”
But he later stressed that the hard work was yet to come.
“I am determined to bring about the resurrection of my family from the trauma and the terrible bereavement we went through,” Mr Asher told the BBC.
“Complex days are ahead of me,” he added. “I don’t celebrate, I won’t celebrate until the last of the kidnapped returns.”
Dragged from a safe room
Mr Asher has became a prominent figure in the movement that represents the families of the hostages, founded days after the abduction of around 240 people from Israel during Hamas’s shock assault.
His wife and daughters were dragged from a safe room at Doron’s mother’s house in Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Doron’s mother, Efrat Katz, was killed in the attack. Her partner, Gadi, was taken by the terrorists and remains a hostage.
For Alonis, the release of Danielle, 44, and her five-year-old daughter Emilia, was another bitter-sweet case of a family separated.
The pair were abducted in Nir Oz along with Danielle’s sister Sharon Aloni Cunio, her husband David Cunio, and their three-year-old twin daughters, all of whom are still in captivity.
“Mom’s back!”, was how Yair Moses greeted the release of 78-year-old Margalit, a cancer survivor.
She and her close neighbour and ex-husband Gadi Mozes were both taken to Gaza from Nir Oz, where Gadi is presumed to remain.
‘Their physical condition is good’
Margalit was a professional educator for 25 years, but later became the treasurer of the Nirlat paint factory, located at the kibbutz.
She was pictured on Saturday in hospital surrounded by her family.
In a country where the trauma of kidnapping and hostage taking is familiar to many, Dr Efrat Bron-Harlev, director-general of Schneider Children’s Medical Center, tried to explain what it meant to his staff to be involved in the repatriations.
Giving a cautious but positive update, he said: “Their physical condition is good and they are currently undergoing medical and emotional assessment by the medical and psychosocial teams at Schneider Children’s in a specially-designated and private area.”
“There are not enough words to express the emotion that we are feeling at this time together with the families and the entire nation of Israel.
“We will do our utmost to care for the physical and emotional health of the returned hostages. From our perspective, this is a national mission, and we are proud to have the privilege to treat them.”
