In Israel, a long wait of hope and fear to see if their children will be freed from hell

Singing broke out on the streets of Tel Aviv last night as the first hostages arrived back home to Israel after seven weeks in the hell of Gaza. 

Late last night two helicopters brought the four released children and their mothers to the children´s hospital. 

Another two helicopters brought the elderly hostages to a nearby hospital.

It was one step in an agonizing waiting game this week in Israel. 

At times the promise of a deal surrounding the women and children abducted on Oct. 7 seemed almost impossible.

On Wednesday night I was with the families of many hostages who had gathered in Tel Aviv to receive the news of whether their loved ones were on the lists.

At first it seemed as though all the stolen children might be in the first round of releases. 

That caused both relief and fear.  

The parents of 21-year old Omer, stolen from the Nova Party, were, like all the parents, relieved to hear that some hostages might be on their way back from Gaza. 

But there was a cruelty in the news.  Including the knowledge that their son would not be released soon.

It was already clear that Hamas were going to drag out this process like water-torture on the Israelis. 

And everyone knew that the hostage release would come at a terrible price.

Three Palestinian prisoners – including people in prison for stabbing and killing Jews – were to be released for every one Israeli hostage.

It isn´t the worst deal Israel has done to get its captives home. 

But still.

In 2011, Israel agreed to the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian criminals for a single Israeli soldier – Gilad Shalit – who had been abducted by Hamas. 

One of the prisoners released by Israel was Yahya Sinwar, serving a life sentence in Israel for murder.

Since his release in 2011 Sinwar has risen to be a head of Hamas in Gaza.

He was the mastermind behind the Oct. 7 massacre. 

That is the price Israel pays every time it releases a Palestinian prisoner. 

Closure never comes. 

Just new risks.

But as one of the parents told me this week: “Every one of these lives are priceless.”

The message among many hostage families was “Whatever it takes.” 

But in the wider country there is concern. 

Everybody wants the hostages back. 

But at this price?

Then the first blow landed. 

Despite the announcement of a hostage release Thursday morning, Thursday morning came and went. 

Fifty hostages were expected to be released. 

Hopes were that this would include the almost 40 children stolen from their homes by Hamas.

Then the news trickled through. 

The head of Mossad had been given a list of names. 

Soon the names of those who were not on the list started to come through. 

One mother – Maayan Zin – learned the heart-breaking news that her two children, Dafna (15) and Ella (8) would not be among those released.

The torture continued. 

Then yesterday the first release actually happened. 

Once again – as with everything with Hamas – there were further kicks. 

First the news that in addition to a number of Thai workers released in a separate deal with Iran, just 13 Israeli hostages would be released. 

In a new twist it was announced that for the next three days there would be perhaps 15 hostages released each day.

Still, this was more than something.

Yesterday, at around 4 o´clock Israeli time, the first hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in the south of Gaza. 

The Israeli military gave assurances that they would not fly drones or other aerial reconnaissance in the air above Gaza. 

Hamas are worried that the Israelis might be able to identify exactly which tunnels and other Hamas facilities the hostages are being taken from and track the rest of the hostages themselves.

The hostages were first handed over to the Red Cross, then transferred to Egypt where they were handed over to the Israelis. 

From there they were transferred to Hazerim airbase in Israel and then helicoptered to Tel Aviv. 

The elderly women were taken to the Wolfson hospital but the Israelis made sure that all children released were brought in together to the Schneider children´s hospital with their mothers. 

No families were separated.

At Schneider children´s hospital on Friday night the atmosphere was joyful but tense. 

The extended families of the children began arriving early. 

A 10-year old Israeli boy, Noam, had come at lunchtime, wandering around the hospital with an Israeli flag. 

He told me he had come on his own initiative to show support for the children as they arrived.

Hospital staff told me about the preparations for the arriving children. 

Special rooms have been set up for each family, with toys, teddy bears and slippers for the children and a separate arts room for the days ahead. 

The facility had been prepared to receive children from the 10 month old baby abducted up to hostages of around the age of 14.  

Then we got the news of exactly who was on the way.  

Adina Moshe (72), Hana Katzir (76), Margalit Mozes (77), Hanna Perry (79) and Yaffa Adar (85) were all on their way to the Wolfson Hospital for adults in Tel Aviv. 

Being helicoptered towards us here at the Schneider hospital were Doron Katz-Asher (34) and her children Raz (4) and Aviv (2). 

Also Danielle Aloni (45) and her daughter Amelia (5). 

Also the Monder family, grandmother Ruth (78), Keren (54) and her son Ohad who turned nine last month while in captivity in Gaza. 

All were stolen from the destroyed community of Nir Oz which I reported from for the New York Post earlier this month.

The IDF and Israeli doctors greeting the children were all given a 20-page instruction book on how to deal with the hostages. 

Most striking was the strict instruction not to answer any questions from the children about the rest of their families. 

There are many tragedies still to break to these traumatized children.

I know why the authorities fear breaking the news. 

The father of the Monder family, Avraham, and Keren’s father Ohad, are still captive in Gaza. 

But even worse news awaits them.

The Asher children were visiting their grandmother in Nir Oz on Oct. 7 when the Hamas attacks began. What is known to the outside world is that their grandmother Efrat was murdered that day. 

Hana Katzir, from the same Kibbutz, is a grandmother of six. 

Her husband was murdered.

Here in Israel the stories of the families have become known to everyone in the past seven weeks. 

I’ve spoken with the family of elderly cancer survivor Margalit Mozes, released yesterday, and that of 85 year old Yaffa Adar. 

Her granddaughter told me just last week about the horror she felt when seeing video of her sickly grandmother being triumphantly paraded into Gaza on a golf buggy by Hamas terrorists. 

The elderly lady may or may not know that her grandson Tamir (38) is still a hostage in Gaza. 

As are his children Neta (3) and Assaf (7).

As the hours dragged on, hospital chiefs gave me exclusive insight into the challenges they now face. 

No country has ever had to deal with a hostage crisis like this, let alone one involving children. 

Almost 300 hostages taken captive during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. 

But these were soldiers. 

“We never had this before” one of the children´s hospital heads told me. 

Physicians, pediatricians and social workers are all waiting for them.

Heart-breakingly, hospital workers have been told not to touch or hug the children without asking their permission. 

No one knows what these people have gone through. 

Everyone is especially worried about the women. 

Given the number of rapes that Hamas carried out on living and dead women on Oct. 7, this fear is especially understandable.

The fears were justified. 

Just before the first helicopters landed the first images come through from Egypt. 

These released hostages may be the lucky ones. 

But they do not look lucky. 

They look as haunted and changed as anyone would be after 7 weeks in the underground hell of Hamas. 

Karen Monder and Danielle Aloni among others look utterly changed. 

All of them will be.

Then at about 10 o´clock at night the helicopters started appearing out of the night sky. 

Traffic stopped across Tel Aviv and ambulances and police vehicles rushed to the landing-pad behind the children´s hospital. 

Even the cheers of the citizens of Tel Aviv who got out of their cars was drowned by the choppers. 

Screens were erected by the hospital to keep the traumatized hostages out of sight. 

But they could hear the crowds. First one helicopter, then a second landed, let off their precious cargo and flew back to their military base.

After the last helicopter had taken off and the former hostages had their first physical and emotional assessments the CEO of the Schneider Children´s Medical Center, Dr Efrat Bron-Harlev addressed the media. 

She said they had carried out their first assessments and that there were “Not enough words to express our emotion at the hospital” in having the duty to look after these people. 

Their mission would be dedicated, she said, to “the utmost for the physical and emotional health of the hostages” and the hope for the return of the rest.

But however well they are looked after, from what we have been able to see the hostages released so far may be happy but haunted.

So is all of Israeli society. 

Israel is on a war-footing. 

It is also still in mourning, and with deep fears for the remaining hostages.

Outside in the shut-down streets of Tel Aviv crowds sang to the hostages newly arrived into the hospital. “Hevenu Shalom Alechem.” 

“We brought you peace.” 

Perhaps that is true for these hostages.  

But for the wider nation and the future?

We shall see.