For the family of Yaffa Adar, the last they’d seen of their grandmother was a Hamas video showing the elderly woman surrounded by terrorists being driven into Gaza on a golf cart. 

Now, seven weeks later, she was released as part of a Qatar-Egypt-US brokered deal that saw her and 12 others, mostly from kibbutz Nir Oz, freed from Gaza. 

Last night, after the hostages made their way back to their families, news began to emerge of joyful reunions with loved ones they thought they’d never see again. 

Yaffa’s family wrote in a statement: “Grandma is here, healthy and beautiful. Thank you people of Israel,” 
“Thank you to everyone who supported us. It’s the first drop in the sea, we are waiting for you Tamir Adar, waiting for everyone! All of them! Right now, right now!!”

Yaffa’s grandson, Tamir, remains in Hamas captivity. 

Margalit Moses’s family also shared their thanks, saying in a simple post, ‘Mum’s home’.

Yoni Katz Asher, whose wife and two daughters were taken from the kibbutz said: "My family - Doron, Raz, and Aviv have returned home from captivity.

“I am determined to help my family recover from the terrible trauma and loss we went through, for my daughters and my wife’s future. Difficult days are still ahead of me.

I must express thanks and appreciation to our brave sons risking their lives protecting the nation, to the IDF, the Israeli government, and the War Cabinet who are engaged in this task.

“Thank you to the wonderful Israeli people for the support.

“Great thanks to the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters who work to return them all.

“I am happy that I received my family back, it's allowed me to feel joy and it’s allowed me to shed a tear.

“That’s a human thing. But I am not celebrating, I will not celebrate until the last of the hostages returns home.

“The families of hostages are not posters, they are not slogans, they are real people.
From today, the families of the hostages are my new family, and I will do everything to ensure the last hostage returns home safely."

The Munder family told Israeli media that the release of three of their family members was: “a defining day in our lives, we are very excited about their return and still cannot process what we are going through.”