Friends of Omer Wenkert prepare to meet him at last: ‘Concerned for every bit of him’

The family of returning hostage Omer Wenkert has asked that his airlift to the hospital pass over Gedera, Wenkert’s hometown in central Israel, where a crowd of supporters will hold up a large sign welcoming him home, Maariv reports.

Wenkert’s friends are gathered at the home of a family friend in Gedera. His mother Niva told the gathering in a video message this morning, “I love you. We’ll all meet soon,” Ynet reports.

According to the news site, after his release, Wenkert’s supporters danced to the tune of the Smachot band’s 2001 track “What a Day it was for Samuel,” his favorite song.

Osher Yifrach, a friend of Wenkert’s, tells Kan that “everyone here is hyped up, we’re insanely ecstatic.” He says Wenkert’s friends could not rest until he was safely in Israel’s hands.

“We’ve been fighting for over 500 days,” he says. “The excitement is massive, and we are unbelievably concerned for every bit of him.”

Wenkert suffers from colitis, which requires patients to eat a specialized diet unavailable to him in captivity.”

“He’s thinned a lot, which is concerning,” says Yifrach.

“We were under enormous pressure because [the disease] could have done him a lot of damage. I hope it hasn’t already,” he says. “But we knew he could do it. We believed in him.”

Over his sweatshirt, Yifrach wears a shirt reading “Bring Omer Home” in Hebrew. Asked if the shirt is now superfluous, he points to his yellow hostages’ pin and says: “The shirt is, the pin isn’t.”