The accounts of freed Israeli hostages add pressure to save those still in captivity

Sharon Hertzman, right, hugs her son, Omer Avigdori, as they reunite at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, Israel, in November. Hertzman and her daughter, Noam Avigdori, were kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 and released last month. (Haim Zach/Government Press Office of Israel/AP)

On Oct. 7, the Aloni family crowded inside their home's safe room as Hamas fighters rampaged through their kibbutz in southern Israel, barely two miles from Gaza.

There were two grown sisters, Danielle Aloni and Sharon Aloni Cunio, along with Sharon's husband and the sisters' three young daughters.