Those smiles are what Talia Berman, mother of twins Gali and Ziv from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, had been waiting for. A week and a half ago, it finally happened and she still sometimes can’t believe it. Every small, ordinary moment, like coffee on the balcony or a quick phone call from son to mother, feels like pure happiness.
“Seven hundred thirty-eight days of fear, helplessness, and fighting with myself between collapsing and getting up each morning,” she told Yedioth Ahronoth’s “7 Days” magazine this week. “The speed and shock between having nothing and suddenly, one bright morning at 8 a.m., they’re here, on the Red Cross vehicle, it’s incomprehensible. My Gali and Ziv are home! The phone rings, and suddenly it says Gali or Ziv. It’s incredible.
“My biggest dream, to sit on the balcony and see them having their morning coffee, came true. I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming. I go touch them dozens of times a day, hug them, kiss their heads. Now it’s time for recovery, for taking care of them and ourselves. Sometimes dreams really do come true.”
A hug worth waiting for
A tight embrace from a friend at the entrance to their new home , that’s what these days look like: another hug, another kiss, another grasp of life after two long years apart. In the background: their mother, Talia, watching with tears and relief.
A new beginning
Earlier this week, the twins left the Sheba Medical Center’s returning hostages unit after undergoing a series of medical tests that cleared them to go home, a new home in Beit Guvrin. Among their few belongings was something that has come to symbolize them: a soccer ball.
Back together
The Berman siblings are once again complete: twins Gali and Ziv reunited with their older brothers, Idan and Liran, who never stopped fighting for their release alongside their mother.
A yellow heart
Before entering their new home, the twins had one important mission: a friend arrived with a drill, and together they hung a Maccabi Tel Aviv flag from the balcony. Only then did they truly feel at home.
The unofficial sister
Emily Damari, freed after 471 days in captivity, had vowed that she wouldn’t be able to heal until her two best friends from Kfar Aza’s Dor HaTzair neighborhood were released too. She fought relentlessly to see that moment and this week, she finally did.
On October 7, when Hamas launched its attack, Emily texted Gali: “I’m scared.” He immediately came to her, and the two were kidnapped together to Gaza. Emily later revealed that during the first 40 days of captivity, she was held with Ziv. “I remember the long nights, how we held each other, the deep talks we’d never even had back home in Dor HaTzair,” she recalled.
This week, she joined them to watch the Tel Aviv derby between their beloved Maccabi and rival Hapoel. The match was canceled midway, but it didn’t matter, they were together again. Luckily, there’s still the Champions League.
“We won. We survived. Do you realize it? We’re here, together!” she wrote to them this week. “My heart fills with every breath you take, every smile. From now on, we’ll never be apart again.”