Chants erupted in the streets of Tel Aviv last night as the first hostages arrived back in Israel after seven weeks in Gaza hell.
Late last night two helicopters took the four freed children and their mother to the children’s hospital.
Two other helicopters took the elderly hostages to a nearby hospital.
It was one step in the painful waiting game this week in Israel.
At times the promise of a deal on the women and children abducted on October 7 seemed almost impossible.
On Wednesday night I was with the families of many of the hostages who had gathered in Tel Aviv to receive news of whether their loved ones were on the list.
At first it seemed that all the stolen children might be in the first round of releases.
That caused both relief and fear.
The parents of 21-year-old Omer, stolen from Parti Nova, were, like all parents, relieved to hear that some of the hostages might be on their way home from Gaza.
But there is cruelty in the news. Including knowing their child will not be released anytime soon.
It is clear that Hamas will drag out this process like water torture on Israel.
And everyone knows that the release of the hostages will come at a terrible price.
Three Palestinian prisoners – including those jailed for stabbing and killing Jews – will be released for every one Israeli hostage.
Late last night, two helicopters took the four freed children and their mother to the children’s hospital.Getty Images
It was not the worst deal Israel made to bring home its captives.
But still.
In 2011, Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian criminals for an Israeli soldier – Gilad Shalit – who had been kidnapped by Hamas.
One of the prisoners released by Israel was Yahya Sinwar, serving a life sentence in Israel for murder.
Since his release in 2011 Sinwar has risen to become the head of Hamas in Gaza.
He was the mastermind behind the October 7 massacre.
That is the price Israel pays every time it frees Palestinian prisoners.
Closure never came.
Just a new risk.
But as one parent told me this week: “Every life is priceless.”
The message among many hostage families is “Whatever it takes.”
But in the wider country there are concerns.
Everyone wants the hostages back.
But at this price?
Then the first blow landed.
Despite the announcement of the release of the hostages Thursday morning, Thursday morning came and went.
Fifty hostages are expected to be released.
The hope is that this includes nearly 40 children stolen from their homes by Hamas.
Then the news trickled out.
The head of the Mossad was given a list of names.
Soon the names of those who were not on the list began to appear.
A mother – Maayan Zin – learned the heartbreaking news that her two children, Dafna (15) and Ella (8) will not be among those released.
The torture continues.
Two more helicopters took the elderly hostages to a nearby hospital.Youm7/X
Then yesterday the first release actually happened.
Again – as with Hamas – there are more kicks.
First the news that in addition to several Thai workers freed in a separate deal with Iran, only 13 Israeli hostages will be released.
In the new change it was announced that for the next three days there will probably be 15 hostages released each day.
However, this is more than something.
Yesterday, at about 4 o’clock Israel time, the first hostage was handed over to the Red Cross in southern Gaza.
The Israeli military assured that they would not fly drones or other aerial surveillance in the air over Gaza.
Hamas fears that Israel may be able to identify tunnels and other Hamas facilities taken from hostages and track down other hostages.
The hostages were first handed over to the Red Cross, then transferred to Egypt where they were handed over to Israel.
From there they were transferred to the Hazerim airbase in Israel and then by helicopter to Tel Aviv.
The old woman was taken to the Wolfson hospital but the Israeli side ensured that all the children who were removed were taken together to the Schneider children’s hospital with their mothers.
No family is separated.
At Schneider children’s hospital on Friday night the mood was cheerful but tense.
The children’s extended family started arriving early.
A 10-year-old Israeli boy, Noam, had come at lunchtime, wandering around the hospital with an Israeli flag.
He told me he came on his own initiative to show support to the children when they arrived.
The hospital staff told me about the preparations for the arriving child.
Special rooms have been prepared for each family, with toys, teddy bears and slippers for children and a separate art room for the days ahead.
The facility has been set up to receive children from 10-month-old kidnapped babies up to hostages around 14 years old.
Then we got word of who was on the way.
Adina Moshe (72), Hana Katzir (76), Margalit Mozes (77), Hanna Perry (79) and Yaffa Adar (85) were all on their way to Wolfson Hospital for adults in Tel Aviv.
Helicoptering towards us at Schneider hospital were Doron Katz-Asher (34) and his children Raz (4) and Aviv (2).
Also Danielle Aloni (45) and her daughter Amelia (5).
Also the Monder family, grandmother Ruth (78), Keren (54) and her son Ohad who turned nine last month while in detention in Gaza.
All were stolen from the destroyed Nir Oz community I reported for New York Post earlier this month.
The IDF and Israeli doctors who greeted the children were given a 20-page instruction book on how to deal with hostages.
Most interesting is the strict instruction not to answer any questions from the children about their other family members.
There are many tragedies that these traumatized children still have to go through.
I know why the authorities are afraid to spread the word.
The father of the Monder family, Avraham, and Keren’s father, Ohad, are still captives in Gaza.
But worse news awaits them.
Asher’s children were visiting their grandmother in Nir Oz on October 7 when the Hamas attack began. What the outside world knew was that their grandmother Efrat had been killed that day.
Hana Katzir, from the same Kibbutz, is a grandmother of six.
Her husband was killed.
Here in Israel, the family’s story has been known to everyone for the past seven weeks.
I have spoken with the family of elderly cancer patient Margalit Mozes, released yesterday, and the family of 85-year-old Yaffa Adar.
Her granddaughter told me last week about the horror she felt when she saw a video of her ailing grandmother being paraded triumphantly into Gaza on a golf cart by Hamas terrorists.
The old woman may or may not know that her grandson Tamir (38) is still a hostage in Gaza.
So are his children Neta (3) and Assaf (7).
As the time dragged on, the head of the hospital gave me an exclusive insight into the challenges they now face.
No country has ever faced a hostage crisis like this, let alone involving children.
Nearly 300 hostages were taken during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
But this is the army.
“We’ve never had this before” one of the heads of the children’s hospital told me.
Physicians, pediatricians and social workers are waiting for them.
Heartbreakingly, hospital workers have been told not to touch or hug children without asking their permission.
No one knows what they have been through.
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Everyone is especially worried about women.
Given the number of rapes committed by Hamas on women both alive and dead on October 7, this fear is understandable.
The fear is justified.
Just before the first helicopter landed, the first image came from Egypt.
These freed hostages may be the lucky ones.
But they don’t seem so lucky.
They look haunted and changed like everyone else after 7 weeks in the underground hell of Hamas.
Karen Monder and Danielle Aloni among others look completely transformed.
All of them will be.
Then around 10 p.m., helicopters began to appear from the night sky.
Traffic came to a standstill across Tel Aviv and ambulances and police vehicles rushed to the tarmac behind the children’s hospital.
Even the cheers of Tel Avivians who got out of their cars were drowned out by helicopters.
Screens were installed by the hospital to keep the traumatized hostages out of sight.
But they could hear the crowd. First one helicopter, then the second landed, dropped their precious cargo and flew back to their military base.
After the last helicopter took off and the former hostages underwent their first physical and emotional evaluation, Schneider Children’s Medical Center CEO Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev spoke to the media.
He said they had carried out their first assessment and that there were “Not enough words to express our emotions at the hospital” in having an obligation to care for these people.
Their mission will be dedicated, he said, to “the best for the physical and emotional health of the hostages” and hope for the return of the others.
But however they are guarded, from what we can see the freed hostages so far may be happy but haunted.
So are all the people of Israel.
Israel is on the warpath.
It was also still in grief, and with deep fear for the remaining hostages.
Outside in the closed streets of Tel Aviv, people sang to the hostages who had just arrived at the hospital. “Hevenu Shalom Alechem.”
“We bring you peace.”
Maybe that’s true for this hostage.
But for the wider country and the future?
We will see.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
