The race to freedom: Heart-breaking moment nine-year-old Ohad Munder runs into his father’s arms after 49 days of hostage hell in Gaza – as Israeli families await release of 14 more captives in ceasefire exchange deal
- Video shows boy, 9, jumping into father’s arms after being held hostage
- Hamas are set to release second wave of hostages today in four-day ceasefire
A heartbreaking video has captured the moment of a nine-year-old Israeli boy running into his father arms after he was reunited after being reunited with his family after 49 days in hell being held captive by Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
This comes as Hamas is set to release fourteen more hostages today in exchange for Palestinian prisoners after 24 captives including 13 Israeli women and children were released yesterday.
Freed Ohad Munder, is seen walking through the children’s hospital where he, three other children and four mothers were sent for medical care, when an official points out his father several feet away.
The young boy then waves to his father, before sprinting down the corridor to into his open arms, before he is picked up and hugged, marking the end of his horrific ordeal being held hostage.
Other freed hostages are then also seen being reunited and embracing with family members.
Freed Ohad Munder, is seen walking through the children’s hospital where he, three other children and four mothers were sent for medical care, when an official points out his father several feet away
Nince-year-old Ohad Monder meets his father, his brother and family members at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center, in Israel today
Ohad plays with his Rubik’s cube after he returns to Israel after his 49 day ordeal in Gaza
Most of the Israeli hostages who were released by Hamas yesterday are said to be in ‘good health’, Schneider’s Children’s Medical Centre, the receiving them in Israel, announced.
Doctors have conducted preliminary examinations on the patients and are all in a good physical condition, a statement said.
Adriana Adar, the granddaughter of one of the hostagtages Yafa Adar, 85, celebrated her return to Israel. She became recognisable after she was transported by Hamas terrorists into Gaza on board a golf cart.
Her granddaughter wrote on Facebook: ‘She is here! Beautiful grandma is here! Healthy, beautiful, Pantra! Thank you with Israel! Thank you to everyone who was, accompanied, supported. First drop in the sea, waiting for you Tamir Adar, waiting for everyone! All of them! Right now, right now!!’
Posting a photo of Yafa sat with family, she wrote: ‘This is the picture we waited 49 days for. Now we will bring Tamir and all the kidnapped people!
‘Right now!’
According to i24 News, Director-General of Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev : ‘Their physical condition is good and they are currently undergoing medical and emotional assessment by the medical and psychosocial teams at Schneider Children’s in a specially designated and private area.
‘There are not enough words to express the emotion that we are feeling at this time together with the families and the entire nation of Israel. We will do our utmost to care for the physical and emotional health of the returned hostages. From our perspective, this is a national mission, and we are proud to have the privilege to treat them.’
This will come as a second day of hope for anguished Israeli families during the four-day ceasefire exchange deal, after seven weeks of war killed thousands of people.
Key mediator Qatar was expected to announce the numbers of prisoners and hostages to be freed later Saturday, the second swap since a four-day ceasefire came into effect on Friday and largely silenced the guns on both sides.
Israeli authorities said they had received a list of the hostages to be freed but did not provide numbers or the precise timing.
Israeli security officials were reviewing the list, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, after his government’s vow to work for the release of all hostages taken by Hamas in an attack on Israel on October 7.
Yafa Adar, 85, sitting with her family after she was returned home to Israel
‘This is the picture we waited 49 days for’: Yafa embraces a family member in hospital
Red Cross members receive Israeli and foreigners hostages from Hamas on Friday, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip
On Friday, the first day of the truce, Hamas released 24 hostages, according to key mediator Qatar and an official Israeli list
Released Palestinian prisoners, arrive to Beitunia, west of Ramallah, West Bank with Red Cross vehicles under the agreement on the four-day humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas
A member of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades helps a hostage out of a car before handing her over to officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza
On Friday, the first day of the truce, Hamas released 24 hostages, according to key mediator Qatar and an official Israeli list. They comprised 13 Israelis – all of whom were women and children, including some dual citizens – and 10 Thais and one Filipino.
READ MORE: Israel’s first 13 hostages revealed: From two-year-old girl and 85-year-old to grandmother feared to have been killed, the elderly women, mothers and young daughters who have been freed by Hamas
A two-minute video released by Hamas showed masked militants with rifles, wearing military fatigues and the green headband of its armed wing, as they handed the hostages over to Red Cross officials
Israel in turn freed 39 women and children from its prisons.
‘It’s only a start, but so far it’s gone well,’ US President Joe Biden told reporters in Massachusetts, where he was spending the Thanksgiving holiday.
‘I think the chances are real’ for extending the truce, he said.
Biden also urged a broader effort to emerge from the crisis with a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.
About 215 hostages remain in Gaza, Israeli army spokesman Doron Spielman said.
‘We’re unaware, many of these cases, if they are dead or alive. We’re trying to collect intelligence,’ he said.
Hamas fighters snatched the captives when they broke through Gaza’s militarised border with Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures.
In response to the deadliest attack in its history, Israel launched an air, artillery and naval offensive to destroy Hamas, killing about 15,000 people, according to the Hamas government in Gaza.
Hamas is expected to free 50 hostages during the ceasefire in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners, part of an agreement struck after talks involving Israel, Palestinian militant groups, Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
In Tel Aviv, the smiling faces of freed hostages were projected onto the walls of the art museum, with the words: ‘I’m home’.
Near a hospital in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva, people applauded and held up Israeli flags as helicopters flew in freed captives.
Doron Katz Asher, 34, was among the first Israeli hostages released by Hamas yesterday
Daniele Aloni and her daughter Emilia were also snatched from Nir Oz by Hamas alongside other members of their extended family
‘I am determined to help my family recover from the terrible trauma and loss we went through,’ said Yoni Asher, whose wife Doron and two daughters, aged two and four, were freed after 49 days held hostage in Gaza.
‘It’s allowed to feel joy and it’s allowed to shed a tear,’ Asher said in a video released by the Hostage Families Forum.
Among the freed hostages, four children and four women were admitted to Schneider Children’s Medical Centre.
Their physical condition is ‘good’ and they will undergo a medical and psychological assessment, said the hospital’s chief executive, Efrat Bron-Harlev.
Thailand’s government said it estimated another 20 citizens were still being held by Hamas. ‘We sincerely hope that the remaining hostages will be treated humanely,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement.
On the other side, Palestinians cheered the return of prisoners from Israeli jails.
Of the 39 prisoners freed by Israel on Friday, 28 were released in the occupied West Bank, an AFP correspondent reported, while the other 11 were brought to annexed east Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
Crowds of Palestinians in the West Bank set off firecrackers, waved flags and whistled as two white coaches ferried prisoners out of the Ofer military camp, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
‘I spent the end of my childhood and my adolescence in prison, far from my parents and their hugs,’ freed prisoner Marah Bakir, 24, told AFP after returning to her home in annexed east Jerusalem.
‘That’s how it is with a state that oppresses us.’
Earlier in the evening, Israeli authorities fired tear gas to disperse the crowds. The Palestinian Red Crescent said three people were shot and wounded by Israeli security forces.
‘The police are in our house and are stopping people from coming to see us,’ said Fatina Salman, whose daughter Malak, now 23, was among those released.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, vowed to bring all the Hamas hostages home.
‘This is one of the goals of the war, and we are committed to achieving all the goals of the war,’ he said.
The pause in fighting in Gaza opened the way to desperately needed aid.
Trucks carrying supplies, including fuel, food and medicine, began moving into Gaza through the Rafah crossing from Egypt shortly after the truce began at 7am (5am UK time) Friday.
Two hundred aid trucks in total passed through – the biggest humanitarian convoy to enter the besieged territory since the war started – according to the Israeli defence ministry body that handles Palestinian civil affairs.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN humanitarian agency OCHA, expressed hope that the pause would lead ‘to a longer-term humanitarian ceasefire’.
Gazans have struggled to survive with shortages of water and other essentials.
The ceasefire also sparked a mass movement of thousands of people who had sought refuge in schools and hospitals from relentless Israeli bombardment.
The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting.
In southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis, where many Palestinians fled, a cacophony of car horns and ambulance sirens replaced the sound of war.
People loaded belongings onto carts, strapped them to car roofs, or slung bags over their shoulders, crowding streets to return to their homes from temporary shelters.
Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets warning people that the war is not over and it is ‘very dangerous’ to return north, the focus of Israel’s military campaign.
Palestinians fleeing southward along Salaheddine road help a man with a bandaged leg as they walk in front of Israeli army tanks in the southern outskirts of Gaza City
Several thousand Palestinians nevertheless attempted to move north on Friday, the UN humanitarian affairs organisation said.
Ziv Agmon, legal adviser to Netanyahu’s office, told reporters that Israeli soldiers had been carefully prepared to receive potentially deeply traumatised women and children.
After medical examinations, the former captives would be able to telephone family members before reunions later at Israeli medical facilities, he added.
Hamas earlier released four women, and Israeli forces rescued another. Two other captives, including a woman soldier, were found dead by Israeli troops in Gaza.
Maayan Zin, whose daughters Ela and Dafna, aged eight and 15, are among the hostages, posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that she had been informed their names were not on the list of those due to be released.
‘This is incredibly difficult for me; I long for their return,’ she wrote.
Egyptian officials confirmed on Saturday that Hamas will later free another 14 hostages in exchange for 42 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
On the first day of the four-day ceasefire, Hamas released 24 of the about 240 hostages taken during its October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war, and Israel freed 39 Palestinians from prison.
Those freed from captivity in Gaza were 13 Israelis, 10 Thai nationals and a citizen of the Philippines.
Under the agreement, Hamas will release one Israeli hostage for every three prisoners freed.
Foreign Secretary David Cameron used a two-day trip to the region to warn Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that Israel’s long-term security depends on the Palestinians also being able to live in ‘peace and stability and security’.
He told the BBC: ‘Ultimately, there won’t be long-term safety and security and stability for Israel unless there is long-term safety, security and stability for the Palestinian people.
‘And you have to start thinking about the future… You’ve got to paint a picture of actually the Palestinians living in peace, stability and security.’
Israel’s first 13 hostages revealed: From two-year-old girl and 85-year-old to grandmother feared to have been killed, the elderly women, mothers and young daughters who have been freed by Hamas
By JOHN BRADY
Asher family: Doron, 34, Raz, four, Aviv, two
Doron Katz Asher, 34, is among the first Israeli hostages released by Hamas
Her children Raz, four (left), and Aviv, two (right) were also kidnapped from the Nir Oz kibbutz by Hamas fighters
Footage shared online appeared to show Ms Asher and her children being loaded into a cart on October 7 and taken back into Gaza
Doron Asher’s husband, Yoni Asher, pictured appealing for their safe return at a press conference last month
Doron Katz Asher, 34, and her daughters Raz, four, and Aviv, two, are among the 13 Israelis to have been released.
She was visiting her mother in the Nir Oz kibbutz on October 7 when Hamas attacked.
Husband Yoni Asher previously said he received a panic-stricken phone call from his wife saying terrorists had stormed the house – and his heart sank when he saw a video of them being loaded into a cart by Hamas terrorists.
‘I surely identified my wife, my two daughters and my mother-in-law on some kind of a cart, and terrorists of Hamas all around them,’ he said in the days after the attack.
Desperate, Mr Asher appealed directly to Hamas to not hurt his family and even offered to exchange himself for their safe return.
Aloni family Daniele, 45, and Emilia, six
Daniele Aloni and her daughter Emilia were also snatched from Nir Oz by Hamas alongside other members of their extended family
Ms Aloni (centre) later appeared in a Hamas propaganda video alongside Rimon Buchshtab Kirsht and Lena Trupanov criticising the Israeli government’s response to the hostage crisis
Ms Aloni’s husband Moran said his wife had sent a ‘chilling’ voice message on the day of the attacks, telling him: ‘We don’t think we’re gonna make it’
Daniele Aloni, 45, and her daughter Emilia Aloni, six, were also captured in Nir Oz alongside Daniele’s sister Sharon Aloni Cunio, her husband David Cunio and their three-year-old twin girls Ema and Yuly.
Her husband Moran, speaking to Israeli national newspaper Israel Hayom, told how the family had been lured out of a safe room by Hamas terrorists who set their house on fire.
Recalling the events of October 7, he said: ‘Saturday morning, my sister sent us… the terrorists are in our house and she sends us a chilling voice message, saying “We can hear them in the house. They are burning the house. Smoke is getting under the door. We don’t think we’re gonna make it. We love you”.
‘Her last message was “Help! We’re dying”.’
Ms Aloni later appeared alongside two other Hamas hostages in a propaganda video issued by the terror group, in which the trio criticised the Israeli government’s response to the hostage crisis.
The fate of the other members of their extended family remains unknown.
Munder family: Ohad, nine, Keren, 54, Ruth, 78
Keren Munder with her son Ohad Munder-Zichri. The pair were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, and Ohad marked his ninth birthday in captivity
Ms Munder’s mother Ruth, 78, has been freed as part of the hostage deal struck between Israel and Hamas
The Munder family – nine-year-old Ohad Munder-Zichri, his mother Keren Munder, 54, and grandmother Ruth Munder, 78, were taken from Nir Oz alongside Ruth’s husband Abraham.
The AP news agency reports that Keren is a special education teacher and volleyball coach for children with disabilities.
Ohad was eight at the time of the October 7 attacks; he marked his ninth birthday in captivity, relatives told Yahoo! News.
His cousin Itay Raviv told the news website days before the deal was struck: ‘We missed Ohad’s birthday. When he comes back, when they all come back, we’re going to have a birthday every day.’
Abraham’s fate remains unknown.
Adina Moshe, 72
Adina Moshe, 72, is among the 13 Israeli hostages released by Hamas on Friday
A woman holds a portrait of Adina Moshe – who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 after her husband Said was shot dead
Adina (in red) is wedged between two Hamas fighters as they take her into Gaza on October 7
Adina Moshe, 72, was taken by Hamas after her husband Said was shot dead by the terrorists as he tried to stop them from entering their safe room in Nir Oz.
MailOnline spoke to locals on the ground in the kibbutz following the attack, who told of the heartbreaking moment her husband gave his life trying to protect her.
A kibbutz spokesperson called Ron said: ‘Said was holding the door of their safe room shut with bare hands. The Hamas could not get in so they broke open the window.
‘They shot Said dead and kidnapped Adina. When we found him he was still holding the door handle.’
She is thought to have been identified as a woman wedged between two Hamas fighters on a motorbike in a photograph that was circulated by a news agency after the attacks began.
Hanna Katzir, 77
Hanna Katzir was reported to have died in captivity, according to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group based in Gaza
Ms Katzir had been seen alive in a propaganda clip aired November 9, 2023, by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, prior to their false announcement of her death
People watching a news broadcast of the Israeli hostage release on Friday react as it emerges that Hanna Katzir is alive
Hanna Katzir, 77, was believed to have died in captivity; another terror group operating in Gaza, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, claimed she was dead.
The PIJ – which, like Hamas, is a proscribed group in the UK – falsely claimed that ‘procrastination’ by Israel ‘led to the loss of her life’.
She had appeared in a video issued by the PIJ prior to the false announcement being made, in which she said: ‘I miss home, my children, my husband Rami, and the whole, dear, beloved family.’
Israeli analyst Eli Kowaz, a senior advisor for the Israel Policy Forum, wrote that the fake reports of Ms Katzir’s death was ‘psychological warfare’.
‘This sick manipulation is the psychological warfare that will intensify in the coming days,’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Photographs taken in Tel Aviv show people reacting emotionally to the news that Ms Katzir is alive.
Ms Katzir, a mother of three and grandmother of six, was taken hostage along with her son and dozens of their neighbours from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
Her husband, Avraham ‘Rami’, was murdered while her son Elad remains in captivity. There has been no further information about him since he was taken.
Margalit Mozes
Grandmother Margalit Mozes, 78, was abducted from Nir Oz by Hamas during the October 7 terror attack.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum described her as ‘a devoted grandmother, dedicated nature lover and birdwatcher. She loves hiking and knitting.
The Times of Israel reports that Ms Mozes was a cancer survivor, and was taken alongside her ex-husband Gadi, who is presumed to remain in captivity.
Ms Mozes holds German citizenship and her children met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a bid to gain his support in pressuring Hamas to set her free.
German news website T-Online reports that she is a doctor of biology, and had travelled to Palestinian areas to advise local farmers.
Channah Peri
Channa (also Channah) Peri, 79, was taken by Hamas fighters who cruelly used her phone to send images of her in captivity to her daughter
Hamas used her phone to take an image of her and her son Nadav Popplewell
Ms Peri, 79, was taken hostage along with her son Nadav Popplewell in kibbutz Nirim, a mile from Gaza – but killed Nadav’s brother Roi during the attack.
Her daughter, Ayelet Svatitzky, previously revealed cruel Hamas gunmen then used her phone to take pictures of their captives and sent them to her, captioning the images: ‘Hamas’.
Mrs Svatitzky, 46, said in October: ‘Someone used my mum’s phone to take the pictures of her and my brother, then sent them to me with a message saying in English: “Hamas”. That was the last I heard of them. My neighbour looked outside the window and saw my mum being taken out.
‘Then my 54-year-old brother Roi, who lives in a different neighbourhood, was found – he was shot dead behind his house.’
Roi is one of around 12-14 British nationals believed to have been killed by Hamas on October 7. Nadav is believed to still be in captivity.
Yafa Adar
Yafa Adar, as seen in a photo handed out by a campaign group calling for the hostages to be returned safely
Yafa Adar is transported to Gaza by armed Hamas terrorists in a golf cart after the October 7 attacks
Yafa Adar, also Yaffa, 85, became recognisable after she was transported by Hamas terrorists into Gaza on board a golf cart.
Her daughter Adva, appealing for her release in the days after October 7, said she relied on medicine and would likely have been in ‘a lot of pain’.
She told Sky News on October 9: ‘We saw the videos showing men with guns taking her to Gaza. I cannot even start to imagine how scared she is.’
She added that she could not understand why Hamas had chosen to kidnap women and children – though all 13 captives released on November 24 fell into this group.
Adva added: ‘The situation might be hard, but there’s no re
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