Families of freed hostages express joy, tempered by fear for abductees still in Gaza

Relatives of some of the Israeli hostages released on Friday after 49 days in the Gaza Strip sid they were overjoyed by the return of their loves ones but recognize the complexity of the days ahead, amid the profound grief for family members killed among some 1,200 people on October 7 and fear for those who remain in Hamas captivity.

Yoni Asher, whose wife and two young daughters were among 13 Israeli hostages released on Friday as part of a multi-day lull in fighting that is intended to see the release of at least 50 Israelis overall (children, their mothers, and other women), posted a short video hours after being reunited with his family.

“I am determined to help my family recover from the terrible trauma and loss we went through, for the future of the girls and Doron,” he said. “Complex days are still ahead of me.”

Asher became a prominent figure in the organization that represents the families of the hostages, founded days after the abduction of some 240 people from Israel during Hamas’s shock assault on southern Israel on October 7, when terrorists rampaged through southern communities and an outdoor music festival for hours, killing 1,200 people.

Asher’s wife, Doron, and their two young daughters Raz, 5, and Aviv, 2, were taken on October 7 from the sealed room of Doron’s mother’s house in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near Gaza. Doron’s mother, Efrat Katz, was killed in the attack. Her partner, Gadi, was taken by the terrorists and remains a hostage.

“My family, Doron, Raz, and Aviv returned home to me… I must express thanks and appreciation to our brave sons risking their lives protecting the nation, to the IDF, the Israeli government, and the war cabinet and all those who are engaged in the work. Thanks to the wonderful people of Israel, for the thousands of messages and reinforcements. A big thank you to the families of the hostages who are working to get everyone back,” he said.

He added a special thanks to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, made up of “private people who left everything — families, careers — and gave all their time, energy, blood, and soul for the goal of rescuing my family.”

“I am happy that I got my family back…But I don’t celebrate, I won’t celebrate until the last of the hostages returns. I want to emphasize — our children, our fathers, our mothers, our sisters — are at this time in captivity, there are people whose hearts are broken at this time and I want to make sure that every last hostage person will return home,” Asher added.

The first group of hostages released Friday also included two other mothers and their young children — Emilia Aloni, 5, and her mother Danielle, 44, and Ohad Munder-Zichri, 9, his mother Keren Munder, 54, and his grandmother Ruti Munder, 78 — and five elderly women: Yaffa Adar, 85, Adina Moshe, 72, Margalit Moses, 78, Hanna Katzir, 77, and Channah Peri, 79.

The Munder family said in a statement cited by Ynet that the release was “a defining day in our lives, we are very excited about their return and still cannot process what we are going through.

It added that the family continues to pray for the return of grandfather Avraham Munder, who remains a hostage in Gaza. Roy Munder, Avraham and Ruti Munder’s son and Keren Munder’s brother, was killed on October 7.

The family thanked “the people of Israel” for the “unity, the concern and the endless embrace.”

“We call on you to continue to support the dear families of the hostages, until we are reunited with them,” the family added.

Yael Adar, the daughter-in-law of 85-year-old Yaffa Adar, who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, said the family was cautiously optimistic for her return on Friday.

“There was crazy tension. We gathered to see if it was really happening, and when I saw on TV and recognized [her] and there was no doubt and saw that she was on her feet — it was a huge excitement,” she told Ynet.

Yael Adar said she has yet to speak to her mother-in-law and wants to give her time. “We need to see what her pace will be, how much she will be able to process. We have to remember that since the day she was kidnapped, she doesn’t know a lot. She doesn’t know about the neighbors who were kidnapped, about the neighbors who were murdered. About the kidnapped grandson, she doesn’t know there is no home to return to.”

Yael’s son and Yaffa Adar’s grandson, Tamir Adar, is presumed to be held hostage in Gaza. He was part of the Kibbutz Nir Oz emergency squad which fought off hundreds of terrorists on October 7.

Adar, a mother of three, grandmother of eight, and great-grandmother of seven, emerged as an icon of dignity and quiet defiance after footage emerged of her, wrapped in a pink-flowered blanket, keeping a stiff upper lip even as ecstatic terrorists, who had just perpetrated a massacre in the kibbutz, drove her off into captivity in a mobility scooter, and later a car inside Gaza.

The images became some of the symbols of the October 7 catastrophe, the terrorists’ readiness to harm anyone regardless of age, and the courage of the victims.

“I need and ask that the people of Israel stay with us, because today we are excited about those who returned, but I want us not to forget all those who have not yet returned, and we will not be silent until the last of the hostages returns home,” said Yael Adar.