One of the hostages who was, Baruch Hashem, released on Friday was Chana Katzir, 77, from Nir Oz.

Earlier this month, the Islamic Jihad terror group, which was holding Katzir, released a video of Katzir and Yigal Yaakov, 13, making scripted comments in Hebrew. Last week, the terror group claimed that Katzir “died of medical complications.”

IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari referred to her release from Hamas captivity and said that despite the psychological warfare of the terrorist organizations, “more than ever, we must avoid spreading unverified information. It so happened that dear Chana Katzir returned home after the terrorist organizations claimed to have killed her a few days ago. We can’t forget for a moment that Hamas is a cruel and merciless enemy and we must rely on reports from official sources only.”

Sadly, Katzir discovered that one of her sons was murdered while she was in captivity – during one of the few times that she was allowed to listen to Israeli radio broadcasts. And then upon her return to Israel, she was informed of her husband’s murder. Her husband, Rami Katzir, H’yd, was murdered on October 7th but apparently, it did not occur in front of her. Her son Elad, 47, was also abducted to Gaza and is still in captivity.

Katzir, a mother of three children and a grandmother of six, worked for years caring for the children of Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Her family was very worried about her as she uses a walker, takes many medications, and requires a lot of medical care.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)