Ex-hostage Gadi Mozes, 80, leaves hospital: ‘Thrilled and astounded’
A week after release from Hamas captivity, farmer looks forward to working the fields, vows to help rebuild Nir Oz, says ‘national rehabilitation’ hinges on return of all captives
Former Hamas hostage Gadi Mozes was discharged from the hospital and headed home to Kibbutz Nir Oz on Thursday after completing his initial recovery and the necessary checkups, Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital said, adding that it would continue looking after him and his family.
Mozes, 80, was released last Thursday as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal after 482 days of Hamas captivity. Leaving the hospital, he thanked his family, Israel Defense Forces soldiers, security services, the hospital, and “everyone who helped me get released and the entire Israeli nation.”
“I’m thrilled and astounded by the enormous solidarity and warm embrace of the country’s citizens,” said Mozes.
He added that all remaining hostages should be brought home for Israel to achieve “national rehabilitation and redemption.”
Asking the media and the public to “respect my need for privacy,” Mozes, a farmer and amateur vintner, said he hopes to “return soon to the fields and contribute to the rebuilding of Nir Oz.”
Hebrew media has reported that upon his release, Mozes told his captors that when there is peace, he would come to Gaza and teach them agriculture.
Mozes and six of his family members were snatched from Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
While in captivity, Mozes learned that his partner, Efrat Katz, was killed in the crossfire shortly after being kidnapped. Only after his release did Mozes learn that his daughter Moran had survived.
In Gaza, Mozes said he was moved between several apartments and spent some 70 days locked up alone in a dark room.
For much of his captivity, the octogenarian was held in a two-square-meter (2.4-square-yard) room. Pacing back and forth, Mozes covered about 7 kilometers (over 4 miles) every day, he said. He counted the tiles on the floor and solved math problems to pass the time and keep his mind sharp.
Efrat Machikawa, Mozes’s niece, told reporters Thursday that her uncle was “recovering, very quickly,” and that he had been “very, very scared” when being transferred, in the midst of a mob in Gaza, to a Red Cross vehicle en route to Israel.
“He was holding up for so long and was just terrified,” she said.
When he reunited with his family, Mozes shaved and cut his son Yair’s hair, who had vowed to go ungroomed until his father came home.
Speaking to Maariv after his father’s release, Yair Mozes said the family was “very happy he is with us, happy he came in the condition he did and starting to see how we move forward.”
“This is a moment we’ve dreamed of for a very long, and it’s finally here,” he said.
“We knew that Dad is a mentally strong person, but he proved to be much stronger than we thought,” said Yair Mozes. “The way he managed to survive, the way he maintained himself in an incredible fashion — it’s just inspiring.”
Jessica Steinberg contributed to this report.
