Sister-in-law of emaciated freed hostage: ‘It was terrible, I didn’t really recognize him’

The sister-in-law of one of the hostages freed by Hamas in Gaza yesterday says that she almost didn’t recognize him when she first saw him released yesterday.

“It was terrible,” Ayelet Hakim tells Radio 103FM. “I didn’t really recognize him.”

“I knew what all three of them looked like in theory, if you can call it that, and I didn’t really recognize Ohad. But I knew it was him because of his character, not because I recognized him,” she says.

“It was a real shock to see him get out of the car [in Gaza] like that. Everyone around me shouted, ‘It’s Ohad, it’s Ohad,’ and I tried to understand if I was really seeing Ohad in front of me,” she says.

“It was hard to see him so thin and pale and really you can see that he is someone who hasn’t been fed, hasn’t eaten properly for a whole year and four months,” she says.

Ben Ami was freed alongside Or Levy and Eli Sharabi. The three men were emaciated and frail, with medical officials saying they were suffering severe medical problems as a result of their ill-treatment.

Hakim’s sister, Ben Ami’s wife Raz, was freed during the November 2023 truce.