For the past two weeks, I have been interviewing people about their experiences of the deal between Hamas and Israel that began on January 19th. For many people, this deal is not an abstract, far-away piece of foreign policy. One of the people who I interviewed shortly after the first hostage release is Pelinor Calderon Morales. Her cousin, Ofer Calderon, has been held hostage in Gaza for 484 days. Tomorrow, he will be released, probably alive, along with Keith Siegel and Yarden Bibas. When Pelinor and I met on January 22nd, Ofer was on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first stage, and it was not known whether he would be returned alive or not.

Pelinor’s story is included in the forthcoming second installment of the hostage deal oral history. We are also publishing a lightly edited version of her full interview here, on the eve of her cousin’s return.

Pelinor discusses the day that Ofer and two of his children, Sahar (16) and Erez (11), were abducted into Gaza. When terrorists invaded Kibbutz Nir Oz, the three took refuge in their house’s safe room, or mamad. They hid there until the terrorists burnt down their house, filling the mamad with smoke, and forcing the family to flee. They hid in a bush near their house for four hours before terrorists found and abducted them.

Sahar and Ofer were kept together in a tunnel for a time, but Erez was taken by Palestinian Islamic Jihad and imprisoned separately. Both Erez and Sahar were released in part of an earlier deal in November 2023. To this day, Ofer does not know that his youngest son is alive.

When Pelinor saw the first three hostages to be released as part of this deal reunited with their mother, “it was like a breath of fresh air, it was like a weight was lifted off of me, but at the same time I was anxious and terrified.” When Ofer’s daughter, Sahar, last saw her father, he was caged and in a terrible mental state. When Ofer last saw his son, Erez, he was being dragged off by the bloody hands of terrorists. She hopes that these will not be the last memories that they have of each other and that her family can have closure. She knows that not all of the hostages to be returned will be so lucky.

When Ofer is returned, hopefully, he and his family can begin to put this horrible chapter behind them and to celebrate the fullest share of life allotted to them. When all of the hostages are returned, hopefully all of Israel and Gaza can begin to do the same. Pelinor dearly wants to still believe in peace, as she had prior to October 7th. She believes that her generation can finally be the one to make that peace. But after October 7th, that peace seems ever further away, ever more elusive.

These past 15 months have been torturous, especially for the families of those imprisoned in the tunnels of Gaza. Their recovery, and that of the hostages, will be long, and probably incomplete, but once they are returned home to their loving family and nation, they can begin to embark upon that more blessed journey.

Sincerely,

— Nika Scothorne

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