‘A New child 36-Yr-Outdated’: Father Displays on Son’s Launch After 16 Months in Hamas Captivity

KIRYAT GAT, Israel – After the discharge of 33 hostages held in Gaza, tales of their time in captivity crammed with each horror in addition to hope and aid are rising. Whereas they face a time of restoration and readjustment, their households are greater than grateful to have them again.

After 498 days in Gaza, former hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen gained his launch from Hamas captors. His father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, tells CBN Information it was like a rebirth.

“There’s the earlier than and after. It was a residing hell, day by day from October seventh, 2023, till, February 14th, when he was lastly launched, together with two different hostages. And since then, it is like having a new child 36-year-old son who had his launch on that day and now’s slightly beneath 4 weeks previous. It is a loopy idea, however that is how I am experiencing it,” Dekel-Chen mentioned.

Requested if he nonetheless desires to carry him in his arms like a child, Dekel-Chen replied, “I barely let him out of my sight. However I compete along with his spouse and three little ladies.”

That is as a result of following Sagui’s launch, the brand new father obtained to satisfy his now 15-month-old daughter, Shachar Mazal, for the primary time.

When Hamas terrorists kidnapped Sagui whereas he was defending his group of Nir Oz, his pregnant spouse, Avital, and two daughters, Bari and Gali, remained safely hidden of their house.

“Sagui was taken hostage. He, on the time, was wounded. He had been wounded through the course of that day. He arrived in Khan Yunis within the city, Gaza city, proper throughout the border at round midday time. From there, he was taken to a hospital in Khan Yunis, the place his wounds have been initially handled,” his father defined.

Simply days after the kidnapping, CBN Information spoke with Dekel-Chen, who did not know the destiny of his son. Solely after two months, following the primary hostage launch, did he hear reviews that his son Sagui remained alive. They might not obtain official affirmation till February 2025.

“We did not have a constructive proof of life till he walked out on his personal two toes of that Hamas minivan on the assembly level the place the Crimson Cross picked him up in Khan Younis,” he mentioned.

Dekel-Chen says his son spent most of these 16 months underground in Hamas tunnels.

“All through these 498 days, he noticed no daylight. That alone to the human physique takes a toll. There was little or no, if any, medical care given to Sagui, to anybody else for that matter. And we all know that there are even folks from our kibbutz who died because of lack of correct medical care, fixed malnutrition, if not hunger,” he added.

Even at nighttime, Sagui remained conscious of his time in captivity.

“So he discovered that the 498 days that he was in captivity equates to 43,000,000 seconds, and he felt each one in all them.”

Based in 1955, Nir Ozhad round 400 members, making it like an enormous household. Some 47 died through the invasion.

“Seventy-nine have been taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz, out of the preliminary 240 hostages who have been taken by Hamas and different terrorist teams. Kibbutz Nir Ozwas floor zero for the bloodbath on October seventh and the hostage taking,” Dekel-Chen mentioned.

About 80% of the remaining Nir Ozresidents now reside within the southern metropolis of Kiryat Gat — stunning however not house. The very best precedence is to see the return of hostages after which take care of the way forward for their kibbutz.

“Our properties are fully destroyed. Kibbutz Nir Ozis uninhabitable and can maybe be rebuilt, sooner or later and re-inhabited however we will not even start, actually, the mourning course of and the restoration course of, till these 14 persons are again house amongst the 59.

“I feel at that time we’ll start to formulate what subsequent steps are for Sagui…There is a restoration and rehabilitation course of that he’ll need to undergo that is going to take a while,” he mentioned.

About half the surviving group are anticipated to return and rebuild, whereas others, together with the Dekel-Chen household, is not going to.

“Thirty p.c wish to go as a group. That is largely the younger households, wish to go, collectively to reside in a unique kibbutz that is not throughout the border from Gaza,” he defined.

Dekel-Chen nonetheless sees a constructive facet.

“The experiences of the final 16 months have given me a sort of renewed religion within the folks of Israel and their supporters across the globe of many alternative religions. As I discussed earlier than, we have been embraced by the overwhelming majority of Israelis, within the diaspora and by actually Christian communities all over the place I’ve gone,” he mentioned.

Past that, he displays on miracles that occurred in the midst of the horrors.

“We will not clarify the little miracles that occurred inside that life-changing expertise and unspeakably tragic expertise, apart from one thing that is extra religion primarily based.

“Kibbutz Nir Ozwas distinctive in a horrible method amongst all the kibbutzim who have been attacked on October seventh. The Israeli military by no means arrived on Kibbutz Nir Oz, which means…the terrorists and the looters left about an hour earlier than the primary soldier arrived on the kibbutz – 40 minutes, I consider, is the precise quantity.”

“We do not know why they left – the terrorists and the looters. Had they stayed longer, they’d have killed extra and raped extra and looted extra and kidnapped extra. My daughter, her household, Sagui’s spouse, and their daughters might very properly have been murdered or kidnapped in these 40 minutes.”

Dekel-Chen says the way forward for Gaza have to be completely different than it was.

“There’ll by no means be peace in our area, maybe past, so long as Hamas – or a Hamas-like group – continues to rule. By the world group, it is generosity, and it is seriousness about making a post-Hamas Gaza, these folks need to be given – they are not going wherever – so the thousands and thousands who reside there need to be given one thing that they do not wish to lose, one thing good they do not wish to lose. And perhaps then, perhaps then we are able to all have a greater future as a result of going again to what was serves nobody.”

Watch the total interview with Sagui’s father as he displays on his son’s captivity, launch, and the highway forward.