Eitan Horn, Nimrod Cohen leave hospital, return home after 738 days in Hamas captivity

Freed Hamas hostages Eitan Horn and Nimrod Cohen were discharged on Thursday from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s Ichilov Hospital, three days after returning to Israel under the truce deal that secured their release after more than 700 days in captivity in the Gaza Strip.

Sourasky Medical Center said the ex-captives completed all the required medical evaluations before their release and that medical teams would continue to accompany them and their families during their recovery.

Horn, 38, was released to his family’s home in the central city of Kfar Saba, where hundreds of ecstatic residents lined the streets, waving Israeli flags, clapping and singing the national anthem, per Ynet.

“After 738 difficult and long days in Hamas captivity, Eitan is finally coming home,” the Horn family said in a statement. “We’re waiting for him with hugs and endless love and will support him throughout his rehabilitation. Our heart is not whole, and our struggle is not over.

“Eitan has returned, but that’s not enough. Only when the last hostage is home can we say we’ve fulfilled our mission and our moral duty,” they added.

The remains of 19 slain hostages have yet to be returned for burial by Hamas, in what Jerusalem has said is a breach of the terrorist group’s obligations to return all remains under the U.S.-brokered agreement.

In Rehovot, just south of Tel Aviv, residents welcomed back Cohen, 21, who was released from Hamas captivity alongside Horn on Monday.

As the Hamas survivor made his way home, Rehovot residents lined up along the streets waving Israeli flags, and a convoy of emergency and security vehicles escorted him through the city, according to Ynet.

“Thank you to everyone who came,” Cohen said in remarks to Hebrew media after he came home. “I’m happy to see everyone. I love you all.”

Hamas terrorists abducted Horn as part of their assault on Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023, when they stormed the house of his brother, Iair, who was also taken captive but released as part of the February ceasefire.

Cohen, an Israel Defense Forces tank gunner, was abducted by Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks after his armored vehicle was attacked and overturned near Kibbutz Nirim, less than 1.5 miles from the Strip.

The release of the two on Thursday coincided with Israel’s national day of mourning for the military and civilian victims of the attack, which is marked annually on the 24th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei.

The Hamas-led massacre was “monstrous in every sense of the word,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in remarks at a state memorial ceremony for fallen IDF soldiers, calling the Oct. 7 attacks a “merciless killing of infants, children, adults, the elderly.”

The leader of the Jewish state added that “if those killers could have done it, they would have slaughtered each and every one of us.”