Almog, 3, to his dad, freed hostage Or Levy: ‘It took you a long time to come back’

After their release from Hamas captivity in Gaza, freed hostages Or Levy, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami were reunited with their families on Saturday in moments filled with joy and tragedy.

Sharabi, Ben Ami and Levy returned in the fifth hostage release of the Gaza ceasefire deal’s first phase. They were held captive for 491 days.

After being released by the terror organization in a propaganda ceremony in the central Gaza Strip, the three were first taken to an IDF facility near the Gaza border, where they briefly met with family members. From there, they were flown by helicopter to hospitals in central Israel, as the Health Ministry reported they were suffering from severe malnutrition and had lost significant body weight.

In an emotional interview with Channel 12, Or Levy’s brother Michael Levy said he showed the former hostage videos of his three-year-old son, Almog.

During a video call, Almog then told his father, “Dad, it took you a long time to come back.”

Hours later, Or was reunited with Almog at the hospital, with a photo showing the two of them embracing.

Levy was kidnapped on October 7, 2023, from the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im when Hamas-led terrorists rampaged southern Israeli communities.

His wife Eynav was killed in the brutal onslaught.

“It’s crazy. But he’s here now,” Michael Levy said. He added that though his brother is now home, “we still have the struggle for [Or’s] rehabilitation and the release of everyone,” referring to the remaining 73 hostages in Gaza.

Footage released by the military showed Levy reuniting with his parents and brother at an army facility near the Gaza border.

“It’s over,” Levy’s brother was heard saying as the two embraced and wept.

“We missed you,” his mother said, as his parents then joined in the hug.

Ohad Ben Ami reunited with his wife Raz, who was kidnapped during the Hamas-led attack before being freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023, and his brother Kobi at an army facility near the Gaza border, seen in footage released by the IDF.

“I can’t believe it. You’re so handsome, I love you,” Raz said to Ohad as they embraced.

In a video call with his daughters, Ben Ami said, “Joy, you bring me joy.”

Ben Ami’s daughters Yulie, Natalie, and Ella, and his mother Esther, were waiting for Ohad at a hospital in central Israel.

“Dad, how we missed you… You are the strongest in this world,” his daughters said in the video call.

Video also showed Ohad later meeting in person with the rest of his family, with his daughters seen running into their father’s arms, squealing with joy. His mother then joined the embrace, followed by his wife.

The family was seen happily chatting and catching up, in the halls of Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital.

“Dad, we love you! We missed you so much,” the young women said.

Ohad could be heard in the video joking about the weight he lost in captivity.

“I left as an extra, extra-large and came back to you as a medium,” he quipped.

He also recalled being held in a cramped tunnel under Gaza, causing him to bang his head, and said he has “a lot to make up.”

“It’s like they picked me [off a tree], time continues for a year and four months, and I have a bunch of things that I need to get answers about,” Ohad said. “And I know I’m going to get very difficult answers about some of these things, because I need to know what happened on this day (October 7, 2023).”

Ohad’s daughters later released a statement, which was shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum: “Our father has emerged from the horror, and you can see the trauma he endured written on his face. But we are staying strong for him here, just as he stays strong for us, and soon we’ll be able to embrace him. We got our father back. Now we must not stop until the last hostage is returned.”

Images also showed fellow released hostage Eli Sharabi reunited with his mother Chana and sister Osnat at an army facility near the Gaza border, before arriving at the hospital wrapped in an Israeli flag.

Sharabi is coming home to a tragic new reality — his wife and two teenage daughters were murdered in Hamas’s October 2023 massacre, when he was kidnapped from their home on Kibbutz Be’eri. He reportedly did not know that they had been killed.

Sharabi’s wife Lianne and their daughters, Noiya, 16, and Yahel, 13, were killed in their home’s safe room, and he and his elder brother Yossi were taken captive.

Yossi has since been confirmed dead, and Hamas is holding his body.

According to Channel 12 news, Sharabi was notified of his wife and daughters’ deaths when he was reunited with his relatives.

He was already aware that Yossi had been killed, as Hamas announced the death, to great applause, as masked terrorists paraded Sharabi, Ben Ami and Levy in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah before handing the emaciated hostages to the Red Cross on Saturday morning.

Footage also showed Sharabi arriving at Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, wrapped in an Israeli flag, as he walked to be reunited with members of his family.

Hamas kidnapped 251 people on October 7, 2023, when thousands of terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people, sparking the war in Gaza.

Seventy-three of the hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 21 hostages — civilians, soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.