Three hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023, attack were released by Hamas on Saturday, with the men looking gaunt and unsteady on their feet as they were released by the terror group, 16 months after they were kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri and the Nova music festival.
Eli Sharabi, 52, Or Levy, 34, and Ohad Ben Ami, 56, all appeared extremely thin and frail, and while they were able to walk, seemed to be unsteady on their feet.
Sharabi and Levy were coming home to a tragic new reality — Sharabi’s wife and two teenage daughters were murdered on October 7, and Levy’s wife was also killed that day.
According to reports, Sharabi did not know that his wife and daughters had been killed. His mother and sister, who reunited with him on his arrival back in Israel, told him the terrible news, having prepared ahead of time for how to break it to him, the report says.
It was unclear if Levy had known about his wife.
Their relatives have received guidance from professionals on how to deal with the situation.
Michal Cohen, the mother of Ben Ami, said she was devastated to see her son look so thin and unwell.
“He looks terrible. He is 57, but he looks ten years older. It is so sad for me to see him like this,” she said. “He looked like a skeleton.”
Tal Levy, brother of Or Levy, told Channel 12 that his brother “looks very, very thin, and it’s indeed very difficult to see him,” but “he’s coming back and he’ll recover.”
Sharabi and Ben Ami wore brown outfits declaring them to be “prisoners” while Levy was dressed in an approximation of an Israel Defense Forces uniform — even though he is a civilian. Hamas considers all Israeli men under the age of 50 to be soldiers.
Hamas set up a stage for the handover to the Red Cross in Deir al-Balah, decorated with a sign declaring “total victory,” the catchphrase used by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu throughout the war.
Deir al-Balah, a city in central Gaza, is one of the few areas in the Strip where the IDF had not intensively operated with ground forces. Unlike other areas of Gaza, most of the buildings in Deir al-Balah are standing. Deir al-Balah was also part of the Israeli-designated “humanitarian zone,” where most aid was directed.
The three men were made to speak while on stage, carrying the now ubiquitous certificates of their release before they were handed over to the Red Cross. None of the hostages has been visited by the humanitarian organization while held captive.
Considered to be propaganda by the Hamas terror group, Israeli outlets have not reported what the men were made to say.
The Red Cross transported the freed hostages to IDF and Shin Bet forces inside Gaza, after which they were escorted out of the Strip to a military facility near the border to reunite with family members and undergo initial assessments by doctors and mental health officers.
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