‘Coming back to life’: Freed hostages’ families give updates, thank yous; some snub PM

As their loved ones begin recovering from over two years in Hamas captivity, relatives and close friends of the remaining 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday said Tuesday evening that the freed captives are rehabilitating but have sustained mental and physical injuries.

Family members of hostages have said that the captives were held in inhumane conditions, leaving them emotionally and sometimes physically scarred. Others have posted more positive news about their loved ones’ conditions. The freed captives were reportedly undergoing intensive medical testing and examination.

Several relatives and friends have also expressed gratitude toward government officials and activists alike for their long efforts to bring the hostages back home. But some of them omitted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from the list while showering praise on US President Donald Trump.

The omission reflects many family members’ longstanding criticism of the premier for his perceived insensitivity to the hostages’ plight and lengthy delay in securing their release, and comes after Netanyahu and his wife Sara visited freed hostages in Petah Tikva’s Beilinson Hospital on Tuesday, where he promised to bring the bodies of deceased hostages home, as he did with the living ones.

“With the same determination, with the same sense of responsibility and seriousness, we are working to bring them back,” the premier said in a video statement from the hospital. “We will spare no effort and no means to bring them back.”

Here is how relatives and friends of many of the freed hostages have described their condition.

Omri Miran

Miran, a father of two who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, was reunited with his daughters, ages 4 and 2. The government released a photo of the family playing together following Miran’s release.

Dani, Miran’s father, told the Kan public broadcaster about his emotional reunion with his son.

“It was the strongest hug I could ever give a human being,” he said. “The first words I said to him were ‘I love you, I missed you,’ and he replied, ‘Dad, me too.’”

Miran’s wife, Lishay Miran-Lavi, wrote a post on X thanking those who helped secure the release of her husband from captivity in Gaza, without mentioning Netanyahu. She thanked Trump and his administration profusely, as well as the government of Hungary, where Miran is a citizen, and other activists for Omri’s release.

“Thank you to President @realDonaldTrump and the entire Trump Administration for their relentless efforts to bring Omri and the other hostages home,” she wrote. “Thank you to the senior members of the Trump administration, who were available to us around the clock, opened the @WhiteHouse doors to us at all times, even when no one else would speak with us.”

Avinatan Or

Or was taken hostage from the Nova music festival alongside his girlfriend, Noa Argamani, who was freed in an IDF rescue operation in June 2024, along with three other hostages. A video of the pair being kidnapped became one of the most well-known pieces of footage from the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre. Following Or’s release on Monday, a video circulated of the two joyously embracing.

On Tuesday, Argamani posted a lengthy message to social media, describing her jubilation at Or’s return.

Two years. Two years passed since the last moment I saw Avinatan, the love of my life. Two years since the moment terrorists kidnapped us, put me on a motorcycle, and tore me away from Avinatan before the eyes of the entire world.

From that moment, our journey in captivity was… pic.twitter.com/u6uiyHZEeR

— Noa Argamani (@ArgamaniNoa) October 14, 2025

“Each of us faced death countless times, and yet, after two years apart, we are finally taking our first steps together again in the State of Israel,” she wrote, above a photo of the two smiling in a helicopter.

“At last, we can begin our healing together. The recovery will be long; we still haven’t truly processed what has happened here over these past two years. But we won,” she wrote.

She also thanked IDF troops, Trump, several other US officials, and the activists who pushed for the hostages’ release. She did not thank Netanyahu or any other Israeli politician. In his visit to Beilinson, which appears to have taken place after Argamani’s post went up, Netanyahu met with Or and several other hostages. He also met with Argamani after her rescue, and she attended his July 2024 speech to the US Congress. She reportedly told Netanyahu that her most difficult moment as a hostage was when she “heard [him] say the war will be long.”

“Thank you to our family, friends, and to the people of Israel, Am Yisrael, who raised their voices when we couldn’t speak,” Argamani wrote. “To the people around the world who embraced us, to all the incredible individuals who supported us through the hardest times and never lost hope throughout this long period.”

Matan Angrest

Angrest, an IDF soldier, was kidnapped from his tank during the October 7 attack.

His grandfather told Ynet he is “more or less healthy, with scars on his hands and fingers.”

In a press conference on Tuesday night, his mother, Anat, harshly criticized Israeli officials who opposed or deprioritized a deal to return the hostages.

“As I look at my son, it is hard for me to think that there were those who were ready to give up on him,” she said. “It is hard for me to think that the deal that returned my Matan was signed despite some [political] leaders and not thanks to them, that it was possible to shorten this terrible time for my Matan and to save 49 more hostages for whom it is too late.”

Angrest’s brother Ofir told the Hebrew news site Walla that “his condition [in captivity] was very bad, there was abuse. He has a lot of wounds that happened both on October 7 and over the last 700 days.”

His captors handcuffed his hands and feet for two weeks, Angrest’s brother said.

Angrest also learned fluent Arabic in captivity, Ofir said.

His cousin Noa told Walla: “He’s standing and smiling.”

Gali and Ziv Berman

The Bermans, who are twins, were kidnapped from their homes in Kibbutz Kfar Aza in the October 7 attack. On Tuesday, Maccabit Meyer, their aunt, thanked Trump and his team, and the Israeli nation.

She also thanked the Hostages and Missing Families Forum and the Shift 101 silent weekly sit-in community, called President Isaac Herzog “an anchor,” and thanked hostage envoy Gal Hirsch and the Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Beit Guvrin communities.

“Gali and Zivi returned to each other and to us,” said Meyer at a press conference. “They’re on their feet and smiling, and now the healing will begin.”

Their older brother, Liran Berman, thanked all Israelis for never giving up. He said: “We have no words to thank you, you’re on the right side of history.”

Elkana Bohbot

Bohbot was kidnapped from the Nova festiva, and at a press conference on Tuesday, his wife Rivka did not mention the Israeli government as she thanked the Israeli nation, the Hostages Forum, the IDF and security forces, Trump and his envoy Steve Witkoff, and the US government for helping bring her husband home.

“Many good people helped us,” said Bohbot, adding that her husband saw images of the rallies and protests while in captivity. “He saw and he felt he wasn’t forgotten. You saved him, but also me and Re’em,” who is their five-year-old son.

“Yesterday was more emotional than our wedding day or even Re’em’s birth,” said Bohbot. “I saw them reborn. Elkana couldn’t stop hugging Re’em.”

Eitan Horn

Horn was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 attack while visiting his brother Iair, who was also taken captive and was freed in a deal earlier this year.

Iair Horn thanked Trump in a press conference on Tuesday night.

“Thank you for never giving up and for having the courage to live when everything seemed impossible,” he said. “Your strength, your compassion, and your determination saved many lives, including mine and my little brother’s.”

Maxim Herkin

The mother of Herkin, who was also kidnapped from the Nova festival, said her son is very weak, has lost weight, and has not told her about his two years held in captivity by Palestinian terrorists.

“My life has come back to me. I slept for the first time,” Natasha, his mother, told Channel 12. “He is very weak. He has lost a lot of weight. He doesn’t talk at all about what happened in those two years.”

Eitan Mor

Mor was working as a security guard at the Nova festival when he was kidnapped. Zvika, his father, posted an update on his condition on Tuesday, writing that he was “really making progress.”

“Our Eitan is coming back to life in Israel, coming back to life with his family, taking responsibility for himself again, choosing himself when to drink coffee, when to go to the bathroom, when and how much he eats,” his father said in the statement.

“Thank God, Eitan is getting better. I can say that after 24 hours, Eitan is already getting better, really making progress,” the statement said.

Zvika Mor wrote that his son’s health is “good,” though “there’s still a little work” to be done. He praised the staff at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, and said that the family and medical staff were “embracing him.”

Bar Kuperstein

Kuperstein was also serving as a security guard at the Nova festival when he was kidnapped. His grandfather said he had a “hard life” in captivity and was “pale but will be strong,” according to Ynet.

He and another freed hostage, Rom Braslavski, made heart-signs to well-wishers from a hospital window on Tuesday.

In a visit on Tuesday with Herzog, Kuperstein said his Hamas captors began feeding him shortly before he was released.

“Did they begin feeding you?” Herzog asked him. “During the last four days,” Kuperstein replied.

“What matters is that you’re here,” Herzog told him.

Alon Ohel

Ohel was also kidnapped from the Nova festival. His mother described his condition in positive terms in a lengthy Facebook post alongside a photo of them smiling together in a hospital bed. Ohel suffered an injury in the October 7 attack that left him with very little eyesight in his right eye.

“Alon is smiling. Funny. Beautiful. Pure,” his mother wrote. “One chapter has ended and another new, complicated, but hopeful one has begun.”

She added, perhaps in a play on his name, which means “oak” in Hebrew: “Alon is a strong tree, rooted, and the most Israeli there is… I have a powerful son. Alon, you survived. Alon, you won.”

Unlike other relatives of hostages, she thanked Netanyahu and other officials amid a long list of those to whom she is grateful.

Ohel also told his family he was moved into combat areas by his Hamas captors upon the military’s recent offensive in Gaza City to be used as a human shield, Channel 12 reported. The network said he was chained up in a single tunnel for most of his time in Gaza, until he was moved to a separate location in central Gaza some 40 days ago.

Guy Gilboa-Dalal

Gilboa-Dalal, who was also kidnapped from the Nova festival, is currently overwhelmed by his terrible experience in captivity, his father Ilan said.

“He doesn’t know what to do with that and needs a lot of help,” his father said. “He’s talking about very difficult things that he experienced. He’s in repression and will need treatment. We’re just beginning to understand the abuse he experienced.”

David and Ariel Cunio

The Cunio brothers were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz — David along with his wife Sharon and two young twin daughters Emma and Yuli, who were freed in November 2023, and Ariel from the home he shared with girlfriend Arbel Yehoud, who was also kidnapped and freed in January.

The pair appeared in good spirits and chose to surprise family members by jumping at them from behind a wall.

What do 2 brothers do when they are released from 2 years of captivity and about to meet their wife and girlfriend (both themselves freed hostages) for the first time? Boys will be boys and the Cunio brothers are absolute legends. pic.twitter.com/mQwpjHf8ai

— Elad Simchayoff (@Elad_Si) October 13, 2025

Their mother Silvia told i24News Tuesday that “the nightmare is over,” that her sons are “pale but relatively okay,” and are currently more focused on learning what happened back home and how their relatives survived than sharing their captivity experiences.

Yehoud, whose brother Dolev was killed on October 7, wrote on Instagram: “My Arieli is home and I’m overwhelmed and so excited.” She added that “we can now turn to the long process of healing and rehabilitating together as a couple and family,” thanking Trump, the US administration, and “everyone who acted for and enabled the release of Ariel and David.”