Beyond their personal lives, freed hostages are also taking in more than a year's worth of world events: President Donald Trump is back in the White House; Israel and Iran engaged in their first direct attacks; Israel killed the longtime chief of the militant group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
Siegel's wife, Aviva, who was freed from captivity in the early weeks of the war, prepared a book for him that includes notes from the important figures she had lobbied on his behalf — from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to former U.S. President Joe Biden.
“He really wanted to know everything as soon as possible, just to put all the question marks away and to know what happened,” said his daughter, Elan Siegel.
Forced to speak at a staged Hamas ceremony before his release, a gaunt Sharabi told a crowd of masked militants and journalists that he was looking forward to seeing his wife and two teenage daughters back in Israel.
“The information is definitely traumatic so you have to really be sensitive, careful and monitor the pace in which you expose the information,” said Einat Yehene, who heads the rehabilitation division at the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
