Freed hostage Iair Horn asks his chopper to pass over field of favorite soccer team

After family greets him sporting Hapoel Beersheba red, 46-year-old flies above Turner Stadium, to applause, en route to Tel Aviv hospital room packed with team paraphernalia

By ToI Staff 15 February 2025, 4:08 pm Edit
Released hostage Iair Horn (left) flies above Turner Stadium in Beersheba in an IAF helicopter, February 15, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Released hostage Iair Horn (left) flies above Turner Stadium in Beersheba in an IAF helicopter, February 15, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

To applause from below, Iair Horn passed over his favorite soccer team’s home field as he was airlifted to a hospital in central Israel after his release from Hamas captivity on Saturday.

Horn, who returned to Israel after 498 days as part of the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, is a devoted fan of Hapoel Beersheba.

Upon Iair’s return, his brother Amos and mother Ruth Strop greeted him sporting the team’s colors, footage published by the IDF showed.

He later donned his own Hapoel shirt for the helicopter ride.

Iair’s younger brother Eitan, also a fan, remains in captivity.

Aboard the helicopter that took him from the Gaza border to Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center, Horn, 46, asked to make a detour over the team’s Turner Stadium in the southern city.

His request was granted.

His team defeated Ironi Tiberias 4-0 on Saturday.

Newly-released hostage Yair Horn (center) reunites with relatives at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center on February 15, 2025. (Ma’ayon Taof / GPO)

At the hospital, Horn’s room had been filled with Hapoel Beersheba paraphernalia, including stuffed animals and a personalized jersey.

Newly-released hostage Iair Horn (center) arrives with his family at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center on February 15, 2025. (Oz Shechter / GPO)

On X, Hapoel Beersheba congratulated its fan, as well as fellow returning hostages Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha Troufanov.

“We’re excited and delighted for the Horn family,” said the team. “We’ll continue accompanying [the family] until Eitan Horn and all the hostages come home!”

Dekel-Chen, Troufanov and Iair Horn were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz 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. Eitan Horn, who was visiting from Kfar Saba, was also kidnapped.

Saturday’s hostage release was the sixth of the hostage deal’s first phase, which includes women, children, civilian men over 50 and those deemed “humanitarian cases.” Eitan Horn, 38, is slated for release only in the second phase, to which Israel has not committed.

Brothers Eitan (left), Iair and Amos Horn, before Iair and Eitan were taken hostage on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy Horn family)

Seventy of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 24 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.

Freed hostage Iair Horn is seen on his return to Israel after 498 days in captivity in Gaza, February 15, 2025. (IDF)

Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops, 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.

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