‘I dreamt we came home’ says Israeli girl released from Gaza
By Reuters
Aviv Asher, 2,5-year-old, her sister Raz Asher, 4,5-year-old, and mother Doron, react as they meet with Yoni, Raz and Aviv's father and Doron's husband, after they returned to Israel to the designated complex at the Schneider Children's Medical Center, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Petah Tikva, Israel, in this handout picture released on November 25, 2023. Schneider Children's Medical Center Spokesperson/Handout via REUTERS.
Released with her mother and little sister after almost 50 days in captivity in Gaza, four-year-old Raz Asher sits in her father's arms on a hospital bed in Israel.
“I dreamt we came home,” she tells her father, Yoni. “Now the dream came true,” he replied.
An Israeli family is reunited with released Israeli hostages shortly after their arrival in Israel on November 24, after being held hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at an unknown location in Israel, in this handout picture released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on November 25, 2023. Israeli Prime Minister’s Office/Handout via REUTERS.
Raz was released with her two-year-old sister, Aviv and mother Doron on Friday, in the first stage of the Israel-Hamas hostage deal that is set to see another 14 hostages, women and children, released on Saturday.
If the deal goes through as intended, it will see the release of 50 Israeli hostages in return for 150 Palestinian women and teenage prisoners during four days, in which fighting in the Gaza Strip is paused and aid pumped into the enclave.
Aviv Asher, 2,5-year-old, her sister Raz Asher, 4,5-year-old, and mother Doron, react as they meet with Yoni, Raz and Aviv’s father and Doron’s husband after they returned to Israel to the designated complex at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel, in Petah Tikva, Israel, in this handout picture released on November 25, 2023. Schneider Children’s Medical Center Spokesperson/Handout via REUTERS.
Around 240 people, civilians and soldiers, as well as some foreign nationals, were abducted to Gaza during Hamas’ deadly Oct 7 attack.
Yoni Asher had stayed home on that day, in central Israel, when his wife took the two girls to visit their grandmother in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the border with Gaza. As the attack unfolded he eventually lost phone contact with his wife.
He later saw a video on social media of her and his two little girls being taken to Gaza on a vehicle, gunmen around them.
Aviv Asher, 2.5 years old, her sister Raz Asher, 4.5 years old, and mother Doron, react as they step off an Israeli military helicopter, shortly after their arrival in Israel on November 24, after being held hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, at an unknown location in Israel, in this handout picture released by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office on November 25, 2023. Israeli Prime Minister’s Office/Handout via REUTERS.
“We’ll be going home soon,” Yoni told Raz in the footage released by Schneider Children’s Medical Center, the hospital treating the children, who are all in relatively good condition, its staff said.
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