Ben Raanan, the brother of 17-year-old Natalie who was released by Hamas yesterday along with her mother after she was held hostage for nearly two weeks, says it is hard to communicate the emotions the family is going through.
“When I see her again, I think there aren’t going to be words to express what’s going on,” he says.
“It’s just going to be like this intense hug that is bigger than words and bigger than what we could actually communicate verbally,” he says.
Judith Raanan and Natalie, dual US-Israeli citizens, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the terror group’s October 7 assault on Israel.
It was the first release out of at least 203 hostages held by Hamas since its infiltration and massacre of Israeli southern communities that started the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
The two, who have US citizenship, were handed over to the Red Cross, which then handed them over to Israel.
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