Hope for some families of freed Israeli hostages, while harrowing uncertainty continues for others

‘We don’t know how much time they will be able to hold on for,’ says relative of one elderly captive

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For a handful there is relief. A nine-year-old boy, Ohad Munder, is filmed running to meet his father for the first time after being held for 49 days in Gaza. But for the majority of families – now Israel’s most potent social force – there remains anxiety and a desperate hope that the truce and hostage releases can continue.

In some cases the two stories come together. Noam Peiri, a daughter of 79-year-old peace activist Haim Peri, who lived on the Nir Oz kibbutz, learned overnight of a “sign of life” of her father from some of the first group released on Friday, other members of the same kibbutz who were kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.