‘We need all of them back’: brother of freed Gaza hostage pleads for rest to be returned

Gili Roman recalls ‘worst days of my life’ while sister was missing and relief after her release in November

For five days, Gili Roman waited for a phone call to bring news of his sister’s release among the first group of hostages freed from Gaza in November, after weeks of relentless violence in the war between Israel and Hamas.

When the call came at two in the morning, he cycled from Tel Aviv to his father’s home in a neighbouring town. There they waited, and when morning came he told his three-year-old niece of her mother’s return, watching as she ran through the apartment smiling and laughing.