KIRYAT GAT, Israel – After the release of 33 hostages held in Gaza, stories of their time in captivity filled with both horror as well as hope and relief are emerging. While they face a time of recovery and readjustment, their families are more than thankful to have them back.
After 498 days in Gaza, former hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen gained his release from Hamas captors. His father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, tells CBN News it was like a rebirth.
“There’s the before and after. It was a living hell, every day from October 7th, 2023, until, February 14th, when he was finally released, along with two other hostages. And since then, it’s like having a newborn 36-year-old son who had his launch on that day and now is a little under four weeks old. It’s a crazy concept, but that’s how I’m experiencing it,” Dekel-Chen said.
Asked if he still wants to hold him in his arms like a baby, Dekel-Chen replied, “I barely let him out of my sight. But I compete with his wife and three little girls.”
That’s because following Sagui’s release, the new father got to me meet his now 15-month-old daughter, Shachar Mazal, for the first time.
When Hamas terrorists abducted Sagui while he was defending his community of Nir Oz, his pregnant wife, Avital, and two daughters, Bari and Gali, remained safely hidden in their home.
“Sagui was taken hostage. He at the time was wounded. He had been wounded during the course of that day. He arrived in Khan Yunis in the town, Gaza town, right across the border at around noon time. From there, he was taken to a hospital in Khan Yunis, where his wounds were initially treated,” his father explained.
Just days after the kidnapping, CBN News spoke with Dekel-Chen, who didn’t know the fate of his son. Only after two months, following the first hostage release, did he hear reports that his son Sagui remained alive. They would not receive official confirmation until February 2025.
“We didn’t have a positive proof of life until he walked out on his own two feet of that Hamas minivan at the meeting point where the Red Cross picked him up in Khan Younis,” he said.
Dekel-Chen says his son spent most of those 16 months underground in Hamas tunnels.
“For the duration of those 498 days, he saw no sunlight. That alone to the human body takes a toll. There was very little, if any, medical care given to Sagui, to anyone else for that matter. And we know that there are even people from our kibbutz who died as a result of lack of proper medical care, constant malnutrition, if not starvation,” he added.
Even in the dark, Sagui remained aware of his time in captivity.
“So he figured out that the 498 days that he was in captivity equates to 43,000,000 seconds, and he felt every one of them.”
Founded in 1955, Nir Oz had around 400 members, making it like a big family. Some 47 died during the invasion.
“Seventy-nine were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, out of the initial 240 hostages who were taken by Hamas and other terrorist groups. Kibbutz Nir Oz was ground zero for the massacre on October 7th and the hostage taking,” Dekel-Chen said.
About 80% of the remaining Nir Oz residents now live in the southern city of Kiryat Gat — beautiful but not home. The highest priority is to see the return of hostages and then deal with the future of their kibbutz.
“Our homes are completely destroyed. Kibbutz Nir Oz is uninhabitable and will perhaps be rebuilt, in the future and re-inhabited but we can’t even begin, really, the mourning process and the recovery process, until those 14 people are back home amongst the 59.
“I think at that point we’ll begin to formulate what next steps are for Sagui…There’s a recovery and rehabilitation process that he’s going to have to go through that’s going to take some time,” he said.
About half the surviving community are expected to return and rebuild, while others, including the Dekel-Chen family, will not.
“Thirty percent want to go as a community. This is mostly the young families, want to go, together to live in a different kibbutz that’s not across the border from Gaza,” he explained.
Dekel-Chen still sees a positive side.
“The experiences of the last 16 months have given me a kind of renewed faith in the people of Israel and their supporters around the globe of many different religions. As I mentioned before, we’ve been embraced by the vast majority of Israelis, in the diaspora and by certainly Christian communities everywhere I’ve gone,” he said.
Beyond that, he reflects on miracles that happened in the middle of the horrors.
“We can’t explain the little miracles that happened within that life-changing experience and unspeakably tragic experience, other than something that’s more faith based.
“Kibbutz Nir Oz was unique in a horrible way amongst all of the kibbutzim who were attacked on October 7th. The Israeli army never arrived on Kibbutz Nir Oz, meaning…the terrorists and the looters left about an hour before the first soldier arrived on the kibbutz – 40 minutes, I believe is the exact number.
“We don’t know why they left – the terrorists and the looters. Had they stayed longer, they would have killed more and raped more and looted more and kidnapped more. My daughter, her family, Sagui’s wife and their daughters could very well have been murdered or kidnaped in those 40 minutes.”
Dekel-Chen says the future of Gaza must be different than it was.
“There will never be peace in our region, perhaps beyond, as long as Hamas – or a Hamas-like organization – continues to rule. Through the world community, it’s generosity, and it’s seriousness about creating a post-Hamas Gaza, these people have to be given – they’re not going anywhere – so the millions who live there have to be given something that they don’t want to lose, something good they don’t want to lose. And maybe then, maybe then we can all have a better future because going back to what was serves no one.”
