'We were not sure how this was going to end,' says freed hostage's niece

(JNS) - "We did it," Efrat Machikawa, the niece of redeemed hostage Gadi Mozes, told JNS on Sunday. 

Mozes, 80, was among the three Israelis and five Thais redeemed from terrorist captivity as part of Hamas's truce with Jerusalem, 482 days after they were abducted during the terror group's Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. 

Machikawa was reunited with Mozes on Friday. 

"It's such a relief. It's quite amazing. It feels like my body was all tense, slowly it's allowing itself to calm down. It's a very special feeling," Machikawa told JNS. "This reunion with loved ones, I don't think people who have not gone through this can understand."

A total of 16 hostages have so far been released in the first phase of the ceasefire that began on Jan. 19 and is meant to last for six weeks. Another 20 abductees are slated to be freed during this stage, eight of whom are believed to be dead.  

Machikawa revealed Mozes seemed "very frail, very fragile, thin and very pale, with no color on his skin."

However, "Although he was so skinny, his hug felt like the same beautiful hug," she added. "He kissed me and said, 'I'm alive, I stayed normal,' even after such a terrible crazy experience. He is just the most wonderful man."  

Mozes' physical and mental state is still being evaluated, and he will "have to face very difficult information regarding his friends and his community," she noted. "He went through so much that the process of exposing him to this reality has to be very slow."

His partner, Efrat Katz, perished during the Oct. 7. massacre. His ex-wife, Machikawa's aunt Margalit Mozes, a cancer survivor, was freed in a November 2023 deal between Israel and Hamas which redeemed 105 hostages, mostly women and children. 

"We have very good medical care and we follow their advice. I think Gadi will surprise us and recover quickly. He is very strong," Machikawa told JNS.

He has already expressed his desire to help rebuild Kibbutz Nir Oz. He was held mostly alone during his captivity and, as such, Machikawa noted he likely does not yet know the extent of the devastation. 

"He heard the news sometimes but only small bits of it. I don't think he understands the scale of the massacre of how many hostages are still in Gaza. He has yet to discover that reality is quite bad," she said. 

Machikawa referred to the moment Mozes was paraded through an angry and "terrifying" crowd during his handover to the Red Cross in Gaza's Khan Yunis.

"We were not sure how this was going to end," she said. "It was a reminder of who the people holding him are, and that's very scary and sad. I hope that things can change direction toward dialogue and trying to find solutions and not for revenge and endless killing," she added. 

Machikawa said that while her family is experiencing profound relief and even joy, the celebrations are somewhat subdued given that 79 hostages remain in captivity.

"We need our people back, innocents taken into the claws of monsters," she said. "The witnesses coming out of hell after being taken by extremists and terrorists should make us all unite in order to eradicate these kinds of ideas through our shared values and morals. Israel deserves its security."