‘Welcome back’: Israelis cheer, cry as hostages freed from Gaza

JERUSALEM (AFP): Holding up signs reading “Sorry and welcome back” and “Complete the ceasefire,” hundreds of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square” on Saturday to watch Hamas release three Israeli hostages from Gaza.

In smaller groups, friends and relatives of the released men—Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, 29, and Israeli-Argentine Yair Horn, 46—shed tears of joy at the sight of their loved ones, who were made to address a crowd in Gaza from a stage alongside rifle-wielding militants.

All three men were taken from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the 15-month war in Gaza.

Dekel-Chen’s wife, Avital, who gave birth to the couple’s third daughter two months after her husband was seized, was waiting for him at an army base in southern Israel.

“My breath has returned. He looks so handsome,” she said following his release in a call to her sister aired by Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.

Other relatives of Dekel-Chen—who watched the release from the town of Carmei Gat, where some residents of Nir Oz are now living—said they were relieved to see him alive.

“I am excited, and I see that he looks OK, and I want to hug him,” his mother-in-law told Kan, wiping away tears.

Dekel-Chen’s sister-in-law said: “Thank God that everything is OK and they were on their feet.”

‘A new path’

In Kfar Saba, near Tel Aviv, a friend of the Horn family, Ronnie Milo, told the Israeli broadcaster that she could not find the words to describe the feeling of seeing Yair on the screen.

She said she had come to know the family well in the months after October 7, especially Horn’s mother.

“But suddenly to see him stepping out of the photo and standing on his feet, it is overwhelming,” Milo said.

“We need to see all the other hostages released, including Yair’s brother, who is still there,” she added.

In Ramat Gan, also near Tel Aviv, Trupanov’s friends and family clapped, cheered, and cried as they watched the 29-year-old, who had been held by Hamas’s ally Islamic Jihad, step out of a car in Gaza.

In a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum campaign group, Trupanov’s family said they were grateful to see him return.

“Finally, Sasha can be surrounded by his loved ones and begin a new path,” said the statement, adding that they did not know if Trupanov was “aware that his father, Vitaly, was murdered on October 7.”

“This knowledge—or lack thereof—will completely transform his homecoming from a day of great joy to one of deep mourning for his beloved father,” they said.