‘Then the tears would start to flow’: Israeli speaks of his release after more than four months as a hostage
An Israeli has told of the moment he was rescued after more than four months being held by Hamas.
Luis Har, 71, served as host in Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel.
He and four relatives, including his partner’s teenage niece who brought her dog, were grabbed at gunpoint from a house in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak and taken to Gaza.
The three female hostages were released during the week-long November trick but Mr Har and his partner’s 61-year-old brother were kept in Rafah until they were rescued in February.
He was woken by an explosion in the middle of the night on February 12, and he looked for cover, thinking the building was under attack.
There was gunfire and someone shouted his name, adding: “It’s the IDF – we’ve come to take you home.”
He the experience was surreal, telling Reuters: “On the way I even asked one of the soldiers – ‘Tell me, are you sure we’re not in a movie?’
“Because I wasn’t sure. So much had happened. Is it real, is it not real?
“Even today, I don’t know what is real and what is not.”
He said he had passed his days in captivity by talking with his partner’s brother about what they wanted to cook or where they would travel after their release.
Sometimes they were depressed and silent and that was when he imagined talking to and playing with his grandchildren, he said. And he would imagine being hugged by them.
“I felt it, on my body,” he said. “And then the tears would start to flow.”
He said he still wakes up in the night thinking of his experience, and noises can trigger memories.
“It’s impossible to just forget about it, like ‘now I’m in Israel and we’re done’ – no, it’s inside.”
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