Dafna and Ella were at home with their father, Noam Elyakim; his partner, Dikla Arava; and her son, Tomer, in Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the Oct. 7 attack.
In the early hours of the attack, photos surfaced on the Telegram messaging platform of the two girls sitting on mattresses in a location unfamiliar to their family. A video also emerged: Hamas had livestreamed its attackers questioning Mr. Elyakim, who was bleeding from the leg, and Ms. Arava, using Ms. Arava’s Facebook page to do so. Dafna, Ella and Tomer sat with the couple as terrorists questioned them in the family’s home.
Mr. Elyakim, Ms. Arava and Tomer were killed in the attack, and Dafna and Ella were taken hostage.
The girls’ mother, Maayan Zin, said on Sunday: “After a long period in which I lived in terrible uncertainty, my daughters are finally with me. These were 51 days in which I lived between despair and hope, between pain and optimism.”’
“The girls are returning to a new and complex situation, and now we have a period of recovery that will take time,” their mother added.
In an interview last month, Ms. Zin called on the Israeli government to do “everything, obviously: a prisoner exchange deal, an operation, a back flip in the air,” to bring back her daughters. On Sunday she said, “My heart will not be whole again until everyone returns home safely.”
Aviva Siegel, 62
Aviva Siegel, also known as Adrienne Siegel, was taken from her home in Kfar Aza where she was sheltering with her husband, Keith Siegel, 64. Born in South Africa, she immigrated to Israel with her family as a child.
A kindergarten teacher, Ms. Siegel and Mr. Siegel, a dual Israeli-U.S. citizen who works for a pharmaceutical company, have lived in Kfar Aza for about 40 years. Their children, who were outside the kibbutz, lost touch with them about 10 a.m. on Oct. 7. According to the Israeli news media, a Hamas video surfaced on Telegram the next day showing the couple being driven into Gaza in their own car.
Mr. Siegel is believed to still be in Gaza.
Elma Avraham, 84
Elma Avraham was taken hostage from her home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Gaza border. Her house is said to be filled with sculptures, paintings and ceramics that she created.
Dr. Hagai Levine, a public health physician who heads the medical team for the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, told reporters this month that Ms. Avraham was in urgent need of several heart medications “just to survive.”
Upon her release Ms. Avraham was flown by army helicopter directly from Gaza to the closest Israeli hospital, Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, in serious condition, according to the Israeli military.
Roni Krivoi, 25
Roni Krivoi, a Russian-Israeli, was kidnapped from the Tribe of Nova music festival that was taking place near the Gaza border. Mr. Krivoi was working at the open-air rave as a member of the sound crew.
A resident of Karmiel, a town in northern Israel, he had been working in construction while trying to build a career in the world of music and sound.
Mr. Krivoi is the first adult male hostage with Israeli citizenship to have been freed. The Russian government and Hamas said his release came about as a result of direct contacts between them and not as part of the broader prisoner exchange deal.
More than 350 attendees and staff members at the rave were killed during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, as gunmen surrounded the site and ambushed partygoers as they ran through fields, hid among bushes, sought refuge in roadside bomb shelters or tried to flee by car.
Gaya Gupta contributed reporting.
