The video footage of 85-year-old Yaffa Adar being taunted as she was paraded around Gaza was one of the first signs that the world saw of the horror being inflicted by terrorists on October 7.

People wondered about her smile. Was she confused? Did she have dementia? No, says her granddaughter Adva Adar. She simply wanted to show that even in her darkest moment, she could not be broken. “She understood everything. But she said she didn’t want them to see her miserable or suffering,” said Adva. “She says she was thinking to herself, ‘They can take me but they cannot take my pride. So, I will keep my head up and won’t let them see me afraid.’”

Yaffa spent 49 days in Gaza. And while her optimism and her huge strength of character carried her through, it did damage her, said Adva, whose cousin, Tamir Adar, is still a hostage.

“We dreamed about getting her back and it is so good to see her,” said Adva. “But when we hear about what she went through and knowing that there are still so many hostages there, including my cousin, her grandson, we all have mixed feelings.”

Yaffa has been affected mentally and physically. “It is a real struggle, and every day seems a little worse because the more she understands and thinks about what happened to her, to her country, to her grandson. It is hard to watch her like that,” said Adva.

Hen Avigdori and his family (Photo: Family issue)

When it comes to the children who have been released, stories are still emerging about how they are recovering. Hen Avigdori, a TV comedy writer whose wife Sharon and 12-year-old daughter Noam were released, said Noam will not let her father out of her sight. “She doesn’t allow me to leave the house,” he told an international press conference. “I just asked her if I could take the trash down and she wouldn’t permit it, she’s hanging onto me very closely. She has woken sometimes in the night screaming but she’s processing everything.”

That story of trauma was repeated in the same conference by Moran Aloni, whose two sisters and five nieces were held hostage. “My sister Sharon’s daughters, Emma and Yuli [three-year-old twins] are waking up crying, they aren’t able to sleep most nights. My sister Danielle’s daughter Emilia [aged five] is not allowing her to go anywhere without her. Even if it’s for the bathroom.”

Meanwhile, for those whose sons were never on the list to be returned during the short ceasefire, the pain continues.

Alon Ohel (Photo: Family issue)

Idit Rozen, 49, only knows her son Alon Ohel, 22, is in Gaza because she saw footage of him being bundled into a truck on one of the Hamas videos. He was one of the thousands of young people at the Nova festival and had arrived at the party just a few minutes before the Hamas terrorists invaded.

“I know that he and around 30 others ran into one of the bomb shelters and that Hamas kept trying to throw grenades in and they kept getting thrown back until one blew up. Hamas came and took my son and two others. You can see they grabbing him and dragging him on the floor before pushing him onto a truck. That is all I know of what happened to him. We have no signs, no contact, nothing.”