Later, as Yarden Bibas met his father and sister - in the reception centre set up at a military base in Israel before he was transported to hospital - he held them tight, his smile transforming into an expression of such sadness that it was hard to watch.
But when you talk to people in either Hostages Square, or on the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank, it is also clear there is an urgent desire for peace.
When a hostage is released, there is a wave of euphoria that sweeps alongside and washes away any unease at trading Israeli hostages for far greater numbers of Palestinian prisoners.
His wife, Shiri, and his children Ariel, aged four at the time, and Kfir, just nine months old, were taken hostage at the same time.
People started pointing into the sky, and the cheering began, rumbling through Hostages Square.
