Ohad Munder was among four children freed from Hamas’ captivity
New Delhi:
Nine-year-old Ohad Munder was among four children freed from Hamas’ captivity on Friday. He was released along with his mother and grandmother after 49 days in Hamas’ captivity on the first day of a planned four-day truce and prisoner exchange.
Israel today released footage showing a conversation between Munder and an Israel Air Force (IAF) helicopter pilot during his first moments of “regained freedom”.
In a 25-second-long video posted by Israel Defense Forces on X, Munder can be heard asking the pilot “Where are we flying”.
“We are now flying to a hospital,” the woman pilot told him.
Ohad was also asked if he had been on a plane before, to which he could be heard saying “Not on an army one”.
9-year-old Ohad, his mother and grandmother, were released after 49 days in Hamas’ captivity on Friday, November 24.
Listen to Ohad’s conversation with an IAF helicopter pilot during his first moments of regained freedom. pic.twitter.com/CcRNzNzsVi
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 26, 2023
While Ohad, his mother Keren, 54, and grandmother Ruth, 78, were all freed, his grandfather, 78-year-old Avraham Munder, remained in captivity in Gaza.
The 13 Israeli hostages released by Hamas on Friday included sisters aged 2 and 4 and their mother, a 5-year-old girl and her mother, as well as elderly women.
They were among around 240 people taken hostage by Hamas during their surprise attack on Israel on October 7.
Meanwhile, Hamas today said it had handed over 13 more Israeli hostages, three Thai nationals and a person with Russian citizenship who had been held in the Gaza Strip to the Red Cross.
The four-day truce is the first halt in fighting in the seven weeks since Hamas killed about 1,200 people on October 7. In response to that attack, Israel has vowed to “crush” Hamas and has bombarded Gaza and mounted a ground offensive in the north.
According to Gaza health authorities, about 14,800 Palestinians have so far been killed in the Israeli offensive, and hundreds of thousands displaced.
(With agency inputs)