“We hug him and we give him strength, but at the same time we receive strength from him, because if Gadi made it and he says we must do the best we can, we should listen,” Efrat Machikawa, the niece of former Hamas hostage Gadi Mozes, told JNS on Friday.
“We must make sure we fight until the last hostage is back, but at the same time, we work our fields and we continue our research. We have to think of the future as well,” she added.
Gadi Mozes, 80, was among three Israelis and five Thais redeemed from terrorist captivity on Jan. 30 as part of a truce agreement, 482 days after they were abducted during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
A week after his release, Gadi was discharged from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) and returned home to Kibbutz Nir Oz, accompanied by his family.
Machikawa’s aunt, Margalit Mozes, Gadi’s ex-wife, was among the 105 released from Hamas captivity in November 2023 as part of Israel’s first ceasefire agreement.
Gadi, Machikawa said, is just now starting to realize that he is back.
“It takes time even for us. He’s going all around visiting people, people also come to visit him. He’s in the fields of Nir Oz a lot, and he’s leading. People always used to respect him, but today even more and they listen to him,” she told JNS.
“He says that we have no other choice or privilege but to continue fixing what we can fix and bring back the 59 hostages who are still in Gaza. He was there and he knows what hell is in Gaza. No one will feel complete until they are back,” she added.
Gadi was held totally alone for the entirety of his captivity, until the last day when he was reunited with Arbel Yehoud, with whom he was released.
“Meeting Arbel was as if he had met one of his own grandchildren. He knows her parents and grandparents, he did not agree to be separated from her the last night they spent in Gaza,” said Machikawa.
In captivity, Gadi was totally isolated as Hamas attempted to break his spirit.
“He said he had talks with himself, and he knew he had to come back to his family and to his community. His Hamas captors once asked him what he wanted and he said to come home. They told him his home was burnt and he said it didn’t matter because he would rebuild it,” she said.
“They could starve him, they could treat him very badly, but he never let anyone conquer his spirit, and we have to take this as an example ,we have to be stronger. He is amazing, I love my uncle,” she added.
Gadi is the oldest hostage abducted from Nir Oz to return alive. Efrat Katz, Gadi’s partner, was murdered on Oct. 7.
“He misses his friends and his partner in life, but he says that while we cannot bring back the dead, we can rebuild what was destroyed, and he is our torch. We know what we need to do, we’ve been doing it for a year and a half and we will not stop until the last hostage is back,” she said.
The community has started to take down houses and decide where to start building the new facilities for a group of pioneers who will move back to the kibbutz and live there while it is being rebuilt.
As Israel prepares to commemorate Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, Machikawa said it is important to understand what happened in Nir Oz.
“In many ways, it is similar and we have to see it, study it, and remember it to overcome, as we did with the Holocaust,” she said.
As Israel enters its remembrance period, the community, Machikawa said, is still broken and shattered as 14 hostages from Nir Oz remain in Gaza, five of whom are believed to be alive.
“I don’t think it’s time to look into commemorations, we can’t turn them into memories, we should fight to bring them back,” she told JNS. “The national holidays should be put on hold, every official should only concentrate on bringing them back,” she added.
Machikawa is very grateful that her personal story ended with the return of her relatives.
However, she said, “We don’t have the right to relax. The campaign has brought results in the form of negotiations and a deal. We failed 41 people because 41 living hostages were murdered in captivity and they could have been here. We have to finish this.
“It will never be a real relief because so many were already killed and because of all the suffering of those who are still there but at least for my personal story, I feel very grateful that my destiny was to reunite with my aunt and uncle.
“I have this moment where I can breathe a little bit better, but for the next breath to come we have to continue. I look forward to when I can smile a full smile and say terrible things have happened, but we at least finished this and we know everybody is back.”
Qatari and Egyptian mediators have presented a new ceasefire framework to Hamas, including a multi-year truce, the release of all Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners and a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, according to a report on Monday.
The plan, reported by the BBC, which cited a senior Palestinian source familiar with the negotiations, is said to include a truce lasting five to seven years and the establishment of a new governing authority in Gaza, potentially replacing Hamas.
The terrorist organization, which has controlled the coastal enclave since its violent takeover in 2007, has signaled willingness to transfer authority to another Palestinian body approved on a “national and regional level,” according to the BBC.
No Israeli confirmation of the proposal has been issued as of time of publication.