Israel and Hamas agreed Monday to increase the pause for 2 further days, underneath a deal brokered by Qatar and Egypt that can permit extra hostages to be exchanged for Palestinian girls and youngsters in Israel prisons. Eleven Israelis and 33 Palestinians had been launched later Monday.

For the households of the hostages, the silence from their family members over seven lengthy weeks has been torturous. Now, as some are reunited, there are new challenges to navigate and unseen wounds to think about.

Many of the freed hostages are being handled in hospitals, removed from the gaze of the media and a shellshocked nation that’s nonetheless looking for solutions. In latest days, a handful of the previous captives’ family have given interviews, offering a primary, restricted glimpse into their ordeal.

A lot of the details about the place, and the way, the hostages had been held stays elusive. Psychologists have warned of the hazards of urgent the newly launched for data, citing the danger of re-traumatization.

The captives, together with younger kids and the aged, had been ripped from their households after Hamas militants killed family members and neighbors — typically in entrance of them. Israel’s retaliatory navy marketing campaign has killed greater than 13,000 individuals in Gaza, shattering total neighborhoods and, hostages’ households worry, placing the lives of their family at risk.

“A few of them determined to remain longer within the hospital so as to deal with the occasion,” Itai Pessach, the director of Sheba Medical Heart’s Safra Youngsters’s Hospital, stated Monday. “We’re additionally uncovered to very tough, painful, complicated tales about captivity. Regardless of the optimistic look, the captivity interval was tough and sophisticated, and it’ll take time for wounds to heal.”

In a web based information convention Sunday, the households of a number of former Israeli hostages stated their family members had but to completely grasp the extent to which their circumstances had gripped their nation — and the world. For now, they had been staying within the loving embrace of a small family.

Yaffa Adar, 85, counted each one among her greater than 50 days in captivity and by no means misplaced hope that she would finally be returned to Israel, her granddaughter Adva stated. “I’m so proud to be her granddaughter,” she stated. “It means the world to see that she is with us.”

Adar and Keren Munder, 54, returned a lot thinner than earlier than, family stated. “They had been consuming, however not repeatedly and never all the time,” stated Merav Mor Raviv, Munder’s cousin. Munder and her mom, Ruth, 78, had misplaced between 13 and 17 kilos, Raviv stated.

They slept on rows of three chairs tied collectively, like benches in a ready room, and needed to knock on the door to realize their captors’ consideration after they wanted to make use of the toilet. The wait typically lasted a number of hours, they stated.

Regardless of all they’ve been by, a lot of the returning hostages seemed to be in secure bodily situation. Eyal Nouri, the nephew of Adina Moshe, 72, freed Friday, stated his aunt “needed to alter to the daylight” as a result of “she was in full darkness” for weeks, the Occasions of Israel reported.

Within the early days of the hostages’ captivity, family geolocated a few of them in Gaza utilizing their smartwatches or iPhones. Their whereabouts after that had been shrouded in thriller, although Hamas had stated hostages had been being stored within the group’s huge tunnel community that runs beneath the strip.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Raviv stated her members of the family had been stored above and beneath floor — typically they had been guarded by armed militants, she stated, different instances it was much less clear. “They have no idea the place they had been; individuals watched over them.” There have been Hebrew audio system amongst them, she stated.

Munder’s 9-year-old son, Ohad, spent his birthday in captivity. After a delicate and joyous reunion together with his buddies, one among them informed Israel’s Walla Information that the boy had stored a diary whereas he was held however left it in Gaza. His mom feared that its existence would possibly endanger him.

The household testimonies counsel that the hostages had been remoted, minimize off from the surface world. Some didn’t know the destiny of the family members they had been taken from.

In an interview with Kan public radio, Elena Magid, the aunt of Israeli-Russian hostage Roni Krivoi, who was launched Sunday, stated the 25-year-old had at one level managed to flee his captors amid an airstrike and heavy combating.

“He was in a position to flee after the constructing collapsed, and for just a few days he hid, alone,” she stated. “Ultimately, the Gazans discovered him and introduced him to the terrorists.”

It’s unclear how most of the hostages are nonetheless alive. Hamas militants have stated that some have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, however they haven’t produced proof to corroborate their claims.

One hostage, a younger lady, was seen Saturday night time on crutches in a video launched by Hamas documenting the handover. She grimaced as she entered a Crimson Cross car. On Monday, tv footage confirmed 11-year-old Yuval Engel leaving Gaza in a wheelchair.

At a information convention Monday, the household of Elma Avraham, who was launched Sunday, stated the 84-year-old required speedy medical consideration. “My mom suffered from extreme medical neglect. Lifesaving remedy was not given to her,” stated Avraham’s daughter, Tali, on the Soroka College Medical Heart, in southern Israel.

She criticized the Israeli authorities, in addition to the Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross, which acquired the hostages from Hamas: “It seems that she has been deserted twice; as soon as on October 7, and once more by all of the organizations that had been supposed to assist her.”

The hospital’s deputy administrator, Tzachi Slotsky, stated Avraham had a preexisting medical situation when she was kidnapped. “She continues to be affected by a tough well being situation,” he stated.

Whereas almost 70 hostages have now been launched, greater than 150 are nonetheless believed to be in captivity. The households which were made entire say they won’t relaxation till the others come house.

“The battle shouldn’t be over, and we’d like every one among you to proceed, assist us, share their tales and demand their return as a result of every one among them has a household who must be reunited with their family members,” Adva Adar stated.

Soroka reported from Tel Aviv.