Most of the 58 people released so far are still hospitalized and protected from the public – to have time for their family and to gradually familiarize themselves with the new reality. Many of them only found out about the full extent of the Hamas attack when they returned after being held hostage for around 50 days: Ruti Munder (78), her daughter Keren, 55, and her grandson Ohad (9) even knew who returned not that Keren’s brother was murdered by Hamas on October 7 and his home in Kibbutz Nir Os was completely destroyed. The three also assumed that Avraham, Ruti’s husband, had been murdered. But Avraham Munder, who walks with a cane and has vision problems, was kidnapped by another group of terrorists and is still being held hostage.
The Munder family had lived in Nir Os for almost 60 years. Keren and her murdered brother Roi, 50, grew up there. “We had to tell Aunt Ruti that she cannot go back to Nir Os. It will take at least two years to rebuild it,” Raviv said. Ohad turned nine years old while being held hostage.
“She didn’t know anything”
According to her cousin Merav Raviv, Keren Munder said she expected the release to take much longer. She, therefore, knew nothing about the ground offensive or about the mass movement in Israel that is mobilizing around the world for the release of the hostages. “They didn’t know anything. They didn’t know they were famous,” Raviv said. According to Israeli media reports, other hostages were able to partially hear the radio.
AP/IDF Ohad Munder was nine years old when he was held hostage
Sleeping on plastic armchairs
The Munders and other returnees told their families about the conditions. In order not to endanger the many hostages still in Gaza, their families are not authorized to share any details relevant to their safety in public. But they apparently slept on rows of plastic chairs in a room that looked like a waiting room. And they often had to wait hours to go to the bathroom.
Malnourished and with health problems
According to doctors at Wolfson Hospital, where many of the freed people receive initial care, most of the freed hostages suffer from malnutrition and have general health problems. “The main food in prison was rice, hummus and flatbread,” said the doctor in charge, Doron Menachemi. “Some of them have chronic illnesses that require regular drug treatment, which they have not received.” But they recovered quickly and their lives are no longer in danger, Menachemi said, according to the Walla news website.
Lost 20 kilos
The hospital’s deputy chief, Amir Nutman, warned that the lives of hostages still held in Gaza could be in danger without the necessary medication and nutrition. In addition to rice, hummus and flat cakes, some were also given eggs. One of the freed people said that she had cooked for her group herself. Some lost a lot of weight, one lost 20 kilos, others twelve kilos. Several of those who returned have already been discharged from both hospitals. They are with their family or in hotels – for example, at the Dead Sea and in Eilat, where the survivors of October 7th are currently staying.
AP/IDF Ruth Munder and her daughter Keren behind her on her return to Israel
Geisel managed to temporarily escape
Roni Kriboi, 25, who was kidnapped by Hamas at the dance festival, told his family after his release that he had managed to escape in Gaza. According to his aunt Ilana Magid, he escaped when the building where he was being held was hit by Israeli airstrikes. Kriboi managed to survive in Gaza for four days, but was captured by Palestinians and handed over to Hamas, Magid told public radio station Kan. Kriboi is the only man released so far. He also has a Russian passport, and Hamas apparently wanted to show gratitude to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
One of those freed, 72-year-old Adina Moshe of Kibbutz Nir Os, told her family that her group was led out of a tunnel where they were being held before being handed over. They feared they would be executed. Before getting into the Red Cross vehicle, she asked a Hamas fighter to free another woman whose health was worse in her place. Health Minister Uriel Boso, who visited Moshe over the weekend, praised him as an “expression of heroism” demonstrated by many of those attacked by Hamas.