After being greeted by their grandparents and checked over at a hospital, the pair were told the devastating news that their mother, Yonat, had been murdered on 7 October and their father, Dror, remained missing.
The fate of their parents had been hanging over Noam, 16, and Alma, 13, while they were held captive in a room in Gaza with one other hostage – a 39-year-old woman with whom they formed a close bond.
Ahal Besorai, the teenagers’ uncle, told the Guardian that it was tough for the family to deliver the news on Saturday evening, hours after the children were released as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. “Unfortunately, they were not aware that my sister, their mum, was murdered,” he said.
“Suddenly they come to see their loved ones for the first time in 50 days and the first piece of news that they are confronted with is that their mum is no longer alive. I think it was very traumatic, there were a lot of tears, a lot of pain.”
Besorai, a British-Israeli lawyer who lives in the Philippines, had a lengthy conversation with the pair on Saturday after they were reunited with their older brother, Yali, 18, who had missed the attack as he was serving with the Israeli army, and their paternal grandparents.
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