The hostages are released
Ten Israeli hostages, who have been held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for 52 days, and two Thai nationals who also were released on Tuesday have undergone an initial medical assessment and are being flown by Israeli Air Force helicopters to hospitals where they will be reunited with their families.
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The 10 hostages, including nine women, were transferred Tuesday as part of the hostage exchange agreement: Some 50 Israeli hostages – women and children - were released during the first four days of a cease-fire in exchange for 150 Palestinian women and youths held in Israeli prisons and Israel agreed to extend the cease-fire by a day for every 10 hostages released up to 100 hostages total.
Mia Leimberg, 17, from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, was the first released hostage to be identified, seen in a photo published by the terrorist organization; she was seen in the photo holding her dog, which also disappeared from the kibbutz on October 7.
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Mia Leimberg, 17, from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak is one of the released hostages, as seen in a photo published by Hamas
The nine women who were released on Tuesday are: Mia's mother Gabriela Leimberg, 59, and her aunt Clara Marman, 64; Ditza Heiman, 84; Tami Metzger, 78; Ofelia Roitman, 77, and Ada Sagi, 75, who were kidnapped from Nir Oz; Noralin Babadilla Agojo, 60, and Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, 36, who were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim; and Merav Tal, 53, a day after the sons of her partner were released. In addition, two Thai hostages were released from captivity. The husbands of Tami, Rimon and Merav, are still in captivity in Gaza, and Noralin's spouse was murdered in the massacre.
The terrorists are still holding 146 hostages in Gaza, including nine teenagers and children.
These are the stories of the hostages who were released on Tuesday:
Ditza Heiman
Ditza Heiman, 84, and a founder of Kibbutz Nir Oz, worked for many years as a social worker. Contact with her was cut off at 10 a.m. on October 7, after she told her family members that she entered the secure room in her house. In the afternoon her daughter called her, and heard voices in Arabic on the other end of the phone.
Her granddaughter, Ynet reporter Shani Zohar Shadma, spoke with her grandmother's neighbor Hayuta Zilberman, who told her: "Ditza is the person I perhaps admire most in Nir Oz. For her independence, for her strength, for the life decisions she made." Today, after 53 days in captivity, Ditza returns to Israel.
Tammy Metzger
Tami Metzger, 78, was kidnapped from her home in Nir Oz along with her husband Yoram, 80. "At 8:50 a.m. we received a message from them, since then we haven't heard anything," said her granddaughter Ofir. Tami was released from captivity in the fifth day of exchanges, but her husband - like dozens of other members of Nir Oz - is still in captivity.
Noralin Agojo
Noralin (Natalie) Ajojo, 60, from Yehud, went on the eve of Simchat Torah with her partner Gideon Babani to the home of close friends, for the 70th anniversary celebrations of Kibbutz Nirim. They spent the night in the kibbutz. In the morning, Gideon was murdered by Hamas terrorists, and Noralin was kidnapped to Gaza.
Her little brother, Akso, remembered the last conversation he had with her, before losing contact. "She called before 7:00 a.m. and said she was scared. 'We just wanted to celebrate. I'm shaking, I might not come home,' she told me." After being informed that she was included in the list of hostages to be released, he said: "I pray that she is okay after so long in captivity, I have not known anything since the Saturday when it all began."
Ada Sagi
Her apartment was brutally destroyed after the terrorists set fire to her secure room and the destruction is visible in every corner, but Ada Sagi, 75, from Nir Oz, who fought the terrorists and did not give up, is returning home Tuesday after 53 days in captivity.
Ada, a mother of three and grandmother of six whose husband died last year, was apparently injured in the Hamas attack. "She was a panther, she collected the pieces of her heart, of all of us, and continued," said her daughter Navit about the struggle after her father's death.
The daughter said that on October 7, "Mom thought it was another normal morning of shooting, and entered the emergency secure room." At 8:40 a.m. I talked to her, and she said that there were a lot of rocket interceptions, and that there was a rumor about a terrorist near the clinic. She told me it was a rumor, but I think she already realized it wasn't a rumor. She even had time to send a WhatsApp message to her neighbor and then the connection with her was cut off. In the evening they opened the secure room and she wasn't there. There was blood, and we understood that she was injured and that there was a struggle, she fought. She didn't appear in any of the Hamas videos, so we didn't really know what happened to her." Today Ada was released from captivity.
Merav Tal
A day after 16-year-old Or Yaakov and his brother Yagil, 12, were released from captivity as part of the fourth round and returned to Israel, Merav Tal, 53, the partner of their father Yair, is returning today. She was kidnapped from Nir Oz together with Yair, but he remains in captivity.
On October 8, Tomer Tal-Alfasi, Merav's daughter, watched a video filmed by the terrorists who infiltrated the kibbutz, documenting the chilling moments of the kidnapping, in which Merav begs not to be kidnapped.
"They are inside the house, they shot into our room. Yaya is holding the door of the secure room," Merav Tal recorded herself as saying when the terrorists tried to enter the room. "They shot at us, Yaya is wounded. Help me." Immediately after that, Tal sent another chilling message: "Help me, they're already in our home. Help me, help me. Call the police." Today Merav is again on Israeli territory, after 53 days of hell in the Gaza tunnels.
Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav
A month after appearing in Hamas' psychological terror video, Rimon Kirsht Buchshtav, 36, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nirim, is returning to Israel. The video also featured Daniel Aloni, who was also released, and Yelena Trupanov, who is still in captivity.
Rimon and her husband Yagev Buchshtav, were kidnapped from their apartment in the kibbutz. Contact with Yagev 's parents, who live near the couple, was cut off in the morning hours of October 7 while they were also hiding in their secure room. A few hours later, when Yagev's father arrived at his son and daughter-in-law's apartment accompanied by military forces, he found it empty with bullets on the floor. The five dogs and four cats that the two raised were also not found.
Ophelia Roitman
Ophelia Roitman, 77, from Nir Oz, mother of three children and grandmother of nine grandchildren, sent her last message on October 7 at 9:37 a.m., in which she asked for help and said that the terrorists were in her house.
The struggle for the release of Ophelia, an educator who was for many years a 1st-2nd grade teacher, also reached her homeland Argentina, from where she immigrated to Israel in 1985.
In every match broadcast by her nephew Hernan Feler, an Argentine soccer broadcaster, he delivers a monologue in which he demanded the release of the hostages, including his beloved aunt. Among other things, he called for their return at the start of the match between the Argentina and Uruguay teams in the World Cup qualifiers.
Gabriela and Mia Leimberg, and Clara Marman
Gabriela Leimberg, 59, from Jerusalem, and her daughter Mia, 17, returned home Tuesday, together with Clara Marman, 64, Gabriela's sister, who hosted them at her home in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak on October 7. The big surprise was that Mia was holding her dog, Bella , which had not been seen since that Saturday. But brother Fernando Marman, 60, and Clara's partner, Louis Har, 70, remain in captivity.
They were all together on October 7 in the secure room of Marman's home in Nir Yitzhak, as part of a birthday celebration. "At about 11:00 a.m., terrorists entered there. We know this from the text messages they sent - they wrote that they entered their home and broke things, sent kisses and after then the contact was lost," said their relatives.
Clara Marman, who immigrated to Israel from Argentina, is a kindergarten teacher by profession and took care of all the children in the kibbutz for 30 years. "She is a mythical kindergarten teacher who taught everyone," said her daughter Maayan Siegel-Korn.
Gabriela Leimberg, who also immigrated from Argentina three decades ago, is the director of the Havat Eyal community integration center for people with disabilities in Ramat Rachel in Jerusalem, and for the past 25 years has been considered the "mother" of dozens of graduates on the autism spectrum at the center. "She enveloped everyone with love and sensitivity," said Lihi Lapid, president of the SHEKEL - Inclusion for People with Disabilities Association.
Gabrila's daughter Mia is a 12th grader at the arts high school, where they hung a sign: "We are waiting for you Mia, come back to us." Now the mother can return to the integration center, and her daughter - to the high school.
The families of eight of the Israeli hostages who were released from captivity in Gaza arrived at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital, including a family that arrived by helicopter from Eilat. The hospital was also prepared to treat Mia Leimberg's dog that returned with her, and they emphasized that they would not be separated. The only hostages who did not come to Sheba are Buchshtav, who was set to go to Ichilov Hospital, and Tal who was set go to the hospital where the sons of her partner, Yair, who is still in captivity are being hospitalized.
Mia was abducted together with her mother Gabriela from her aunt Clara Marman's house in Nir Yitzhak, and Clara and her partner Louis were also abducted. Uncle Fernando Marman was also kidnapped with them. Along with Mia, her dog was also returned, which was apparently kidnapped along with her.
Just an hour before the start of the transfer, hundreds of people gathered to participate in a demonstration of support for the Bibas family in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv with orange balloons in their hands, this after it was learned that the four members of the family 10-month-old Kfir, 4-year-old Ariel and parents Shiri and Yarden- will not be released Tuesday.
Ofri Bibas Levy, Yarden's sister, said: "For 53 days they have been held captive by Hamas in Gaza, we do not know if 10-month-old Kfir and Ariel are with their parents. Who hugs them when they cry? We do not know if they have food, if they shower them. We know where they are – Hamas kidnapped them and must return them immediately. The responsibility for their health lies directly with Hamas. Hamas – who are your enemies? Kidnapping children, what are your values? Is this acceptable according to Islam?"
Earlier on Tuesday, President Isaac Herzog met with Shoshan Haran, who was abducted from her home during the Hamas massacre on October 7, along with six other members of her family from Kibbutz Be'eri. Shoshan was released on Saturday with her daughter Adi Shoham, 38, and Adi’s children Yahel, 3, and Naveh, 8, along with Noam Avigdori, 12, and her mother Sharon Avigdori, 52. The seventh family member, Tal Shoham, is still in captivity.
Herzog hugged her and told her: "You have no idea how excited I am to see you, and your family. You have become a model, all the hostages have become a model for admiration, pain and identification. I am sure they will return. I am convinced and know that there is a tremendous international effort, rare in its strength. There will come moments of complex decisions, but everything must be done to release them and return them home."
Shoshan told Herzog: "I'm already here, but there are many Israelis left in Gaza and we have to do everything possible to get them all back. I knew on the first day of captivity that within 20 hours my family would organize, form a strategy and start acting with all their might so that we could return home. I have complete faith in the state of Israel, which is also making all efforts, and has complete faith in the people of Israel to do everything they can for the return of the hostages."
First published: 19:21, 11.28.23