For a handful there is relief. A nine-year-old boy, Ohad Munder, is filmed running to meet his father for the first time after being held for 49 days in Gaza. But for the majority of families – now Israel’s most potent social force – there remains anxiety and a desperate hope that the truce and hostage releases can continue.
In some cases the two stories come together. Noam Peiri, a daughter of 79-year-old peace activist Haim Peri, who lived on the Nir Oz kibbutz, learned overnight of a “sign of life” of her father from some of the first group released on Friday, other members of the same kibbutz who were kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.
