Canadian family member of Hamas hostages speaks out after their release

Canadian Aharon Brodutch is overjoyed about the release of his sister-in-law and her children from Hamas custody.

The Toronto resident’s sister-in-law Hagar, 10-year-old niece Ofri, and two young nephews Yuval and Uriah, were taken by Hamas during a rampage at their Kibbutz near the Gaza border on Oct. 7.

The family spent 50 days in captivity before they were reunited earlier this week. Brodutch spoke to media inside a Toronto day camp that his niece attended last summer and described the fear and anguish of not knowing whether they were dead or alive.

“We heard nothing, absolutely nothing from them,” said Brodutch. “We were literally living on hope.”

He fought back tears while describing the moment he reunited with his niece, nephews and sister-in-law. “They looked terrible, they were extremely thin, they were wearing the same clothes they were kidnapped in.”

“For us extreme joy also mixed with a lot of pain, the pain of knowing they’ve been through a very tough time … also knowing we are lucky, but not everyone is lucky, there are still hostages there,” he added.

Brodutch said their Kibbutz community was destroyed and many were slaughtered. His brother, who was part of the security team, was caught up in fighting and narrowly escaped with his life.

He said his family members were returned in decent health and had moments of happiness but in reality, their lives have been shattered.

“They are doing ok but there are pieces there that are not super happy. There’s still a lot of trauma we can already see,” said Brodutch.

Out of respect for others, Brodutch did not go into detail about what his family experienced or how they were treated during their time in Gaza, but did say, the children were kept with their mother. 

“My brother’s wife, she’s the big hero in this story … taking care of her family in captivity.”

While this may be the happy ending they were praying for, as talks continue to extend the ceasefire and bring more hostages home, Aharon said his heart breaks for those who are still waiting for word on their loved ones. 

“We feel their response was too slow in terms of getting the hostages out. I think Israel’s first reaction was to attack and destroy Hamas but hostages are more important there are people who are alive there,” said Brodutch.

Brodutch said his family members in Israel continue to protest outside the military headquarters and will do so until every single hostage is released.

The Israeli military said a group of 10 Israeli women and children and four Thai nationals were the latest hostages to be released by Hamas to the Red Cross in Gaza on Wednesday. Earlier, two Russian-Israeli women were freed by Hamas in a separate release. Israel was set to free 30 Palestinian prisoners in return.

International pressure has mounted for the cease-fire to continue as long as possible after nearly eight weeks of Israeli bombardment and a ground campaign in Gaza that has killed thousands of Palestinians uprooted three-quarters of the population of 2.3 million and led to a humanitarian crisis.

Israel has welcomed the release of dozens of hostages in recent days and says it will maintain the truce if Hamas keeps freeing captives.

With files from The Associated Press