‘They’re still in shock’: Israeli hostages freed from Gaza begin difficult recovery

The women of the Munder family, Ruti and Keren, knew that after everything that had already been taken from them, they could not afford to lose track of time.

So while they were held captive in Gaza with Keren’s nine-year-old son, Ohad, they counted the days as they dragged slowly into weeks and then a second month.

“They said that they tried to memorise the days,” said Rony Raviv, niece of Ruti, 78, and cousin to Keren. “They always knew what day it was, and what the date was. They knew that they were there for 49 days. They were together the whole time.”

She spoke to her relatives on the phone on Friday, hours after they were released as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. “We spoke to them last night for a few minutes, we just wanted to hear their voice, to hear that they’re OK.”

Ohad’s emotional reunion with his father at Schneider children’s medical centre in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, on Friday has been posted online . Ohad, who turned nine in captivity, also spoke to a friend on Friday evening, and other friends planned to visit him at the hospital on Saturday, Raviv said.

But all the newly released hostages were at the start of a difficult recovery. “They’re still in shock, all of them,” she said, adding that the conversation had given a painful glimpse of what the trio endured.

“They told us that some days there was more food and some days that there was less food,” added Raviv, a 27-year-old architecture student who became a campaigner overnight when her relatives were kidnapped.

A family held captive by Hamas arrive in Israel on an army helicopter following their release.

Photograph: Israel Army/AFP/ Perhaps the most painful question hanging over the group in captivity was the fate of two male relatives, Ruti’s husband, Avraham, and their son, Roee, who they had no news of since 7 October, when Hamas attacked the Nir Oz kibbutz .

The women had tried locking themselves into a saferoom with Ohad, as gunfire and explosions filled Nir Oz, but Avraham was in a different room. “When they were taken, they already saw that he wasn’t there – that’s the only thing they knew,” Raviv said. They feared both had been killed.

But while Roee, 50, was among 1,200 victims slaughtered that day , Avraham had also been taken into Gaza, one of about 240 people seized as human bargaining chips.

He is 78, frail and plagued by health problems, not well prepared for captivity and his relatives are desperate for his release. But at least initially, his wife and daughter welcomed news he was being held, because the alternative was even worse.

“They were worried the whole time. When we told them that Avraham is held hostage, they were actually relieved,” Raviv said. “I think they just thought [the men] were both dead and had lived with it already for 49 days.”

Ruti is now holding out hope of being reunited with her husband. “Ruti is optimistic – she thinks that if she’s back, Avraham might come back soon,” Raviv said. But the family are worried about him. “He’s the least healthy one. He doesn’t see well, he walks with a cane, he has PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], and being in those conditions is probably really tough for him,” Raviv said.

“We still have a long way to go... But seeing them and seeing that they’re fine gives us hope,” she added.

The family are also still focused on the campaign to free the many other hostages; after weeks of putting pressure on Israel’s leaders and the international community to free everyone who was kidnapped, the relatives have become a close-knit group, she added.

“We don’t want to be too excited and happy because we feel like we’re one big family and we have really good connections with the other families and we try to help each other and be there for each other,” Raviv said.