IDF via AP
- Israeli hostages didn't know whether their relatives were alive or dead while in Hamas captivity.
- Some only found out after being freed as part of an ongoing cease-fire deal, relatives said.
- More than 50 hostages taken into Gaza have since been released.
Recently freed Israeli hostages were so cut off from the outside world while in Hamas captivity that they only discovered whether their family members were dead or alive after they were released, according to relatives.
More than 50 of the some 200 hostages who were kidnapped by the Palestinian militant group and taken into Gaza during Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel have been freed as part of an ongoing four-day cease-fire deal.
Yaffa Adar, 85, was among the dozens of women and children released after seven weeks in Hamas captivity. Her grandchild, Adva Adar, said that her grandmother was certain that her family members had been killed, the Associated Press reported.
But after Yaffa Adar was released, she learned that her family had survived, the grandchild said.
She did, however, find out that her home had been destroyed by Hamas fighters.
"For an 85-year-old woman, usually you have your house where you raised your kids, you have your memories, your photo albums, your clothes," Adva Adar said, according to the AP. "She has nothing, and in her old age, she needs to start over. She mentioned that it is tough for her."
The grandchild said that her grandmother counted the days as she was held by Hamas militants. "She came back and she said, 'I know that I've been there for 50 days,'" Adva Adar said, the news outlet reported.
Freed hostage Adina Moshe, 72, didn't know she'd be released until the last minute on Friday and after she was, she discovered that her husband was killed by Hamas fighters, while her son's family managed to survive, Moshe's nephew said, according to the AP.
"She was in complete darkness," Moshe's nephew Eyal Nouri said, the AP reported. "She was walking with her eyes down because she was in a tunnel. She was not used to the daylight. And during her captivity, she was disconnected ... from all the outside world."
It was only until Moshe saw members of the Red Cross that she "realized, okay, these horrifying seven weeks are over," Nouri said.
Ruth Munder, 78, who was released on Friday along with her daughter and 9-year-old grandson, discovered that her son, Roi, was among the 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, a relative, Merav Mor Raviv, told reporters, according to The New York Times.
In better news, Munder learned that her husband — Avraham Munder, who she assumed was also killed — survived and was taken to Gaza, Raviv said.
The Munder family "didn't have a clue" about the push for their release, said Raviv, according to the Times.
Meanwhile, relatives of the freed hostages revealed details about their loved ones' time in captivity, saying that they lost weight, spent hours waiting for the bathroom, and slept on plastic chairs pushed together.
In the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel declared war on Hamas, launching retaliatory strikes in Gaza and killing more than 13,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.