Ella Ben Ami, the daughter of Ohad, who returned to Israel on Saturday as part of the fifth hostage return of the current deal, shared her fight for her father's return throughout the process. Now she's also making sure to document every moment after his return and isn't hiding her excitement at Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv.
Following the footage of the meeting between Ohad and his three daughters after his 70 weeks in captivity, Ella shared the first hours together at night in the special room prepared for him in the hospital. "A night in the hospital for the best reasons possible," she shared. "Dad came back to us, smiles, laughs at us and hugs us for a long time. Hearing his voice again is an exciting that I have no way of explaining."
However, she also shared her concerns for the 76 hostages still in captivity and wrote that "along with all the happiness, the images of him getting out of the Hamas car will never be erased from my mind. After everything that happened this day, the only thing that goes through my mind is how we must get everyone out of there, get everyone out of this hell, and quickly."
Hours later, she shared that they were eating breakfast together for the first time in 492 days. "It wasn't a dream, Dad is here eating breakfast and I'm sitting next to him and I can't take my eyes off him. I'm afraid he'll disappear if I close them for a moment," she wrote.
Ayelet Hakim, Ohad's sister-in-law, shared in an interview with Ynet that even now "the roller coaster never stops for a moment. Even when we saw him leave, the pictures were horrific, but Ohadi is back and we can see him up close, which is very moving. Ohad always used his sense of humor in both happy and sad situations. I was happy to see that he kept it and used it a few hours after he left the horrors of Gaza."
She noted that she had yet to see him in person, but that she had spoken to her relatives who did. "He is mentally and emotionally strong and you can see it in him. We are a big family and I am waiting in line to see him; hopefully, it will happen tonight or tomorrow morning," she said.
When asked what the first thing he ate was, she shared that first of all she was encouraged by the fact that he was eating: "They tell me that he is eating, for Ohad, food takes up a big part of life. He eats and undergoes tests. He is thin, but he is the same Ohad. He ate burekas and treats. That's what he wanted. It sounds like a return to life."
Ayelet also addressed his request to know what happened since he was kidnapped - and in particular about October 7. "I think he knows more than we think," she said. "He has a lot of gaps to fill - and a lot of tragedies to hear. He has no home to return to in Be'eri. He has the mental capacity to deal with the news he will receive. The fact that Natalie enlisted in the army and Ohad wrapped himself in the Israeli flag means that it is a good sign for the State of Israel that we continue like this. He said that he knows that there are a lot of difficult things that he needs to hear."
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Keren Ben Ami, Ohad's sister-in-law, added that he is "fine and in good spirits." According to her, "He hasn't lost his sense of humor, his sharpness and his practical thinking. You can see that he is slowly returning to himself. He came back very weak and lost a lot of weight, but apart from the physical weakness - in terms of the mind he is strong. We are all surrounding us and he will be completely fine." She said that he doesn't share too much about his period in captivity, but he told them that every day he thought about everyone and prayed for everyone's health.
"We were shocked," she shared. "He did kiddush and havdalah there, and prayed for everyone. He grew very strong in captivity. Occasionally they watched television there, but nothing more."