‘They won’t humiliate her’: Family joy as great-grandmother freed by Hamas

When a video of Yaffa Adar went viral in the hours after the October 7 massacre, her granddaughter Adva was offended by the reactions of many who saw it.

The video showed 85-year-old Yaffa sitting in a golf cart after being taken hostage when Hamas terrorists stormed into the kibbutz where she lived in southern Israel.

Adva Adar feared that her grandmother Yaffa, 85, would not make it home alive after being kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

Wrapped in a pink blanket, Yaffa smiled serenely, as if she was being taken for a pleasant drive in the countryside rather than being paraded like a trophy by kidnappers. Many who watched it thought she must have been confused, perhaps she had dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Not at all, according to those who knew her best. “She’s sharp-minded,” Adva told me and photographer Kate Geraghty last month in a park in central Tel Aviv. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and Adva’s voice was trembling.

“She gets everything but she’s the kind of person that will sit there and she will look them in the eyes,” Adva said of Yaffa, the oldest of the 240 people taken hostage in the terror attack.

“And she will let them see that she’s a person and they can kidnap her, but they won’t take her pride and they won’t humiliate her and she won’t let them see her suffer or be afraid.”

Adva was telling her grandmother’s story to anyone from the media who would listen in a bid to increase pressure on the Israeli government and Hamas to strike a hostage release deal.

She wanted the world to know that Yaffa was a lover of good food and wine who delighted in using Facebook and sending GIFs on WhatsApp. That she was a “very special person”, not just another name on a list of captives.

“Having an 85-year-old woman kidnapped: that’s not something that the world can permit,” she said.

Adva told us that, like most other residents of Nir Oz, her progressive farming community, Yaffa was an idealist who believed in peace between Israelis and Palestinians on the other side of the border fence.

Adva Adar holds family photos, including one of her 85-year-old grandmother Yaffa Adar, who was taken hostage by Hamas.

“They were the ones who kidnapped her so where’s the hope in this story?” she asked. She feared her grandmother, who used a walking frame, would not be able to last through weeks in captivity without access to medication.

Yaffa, though, did survive 49 days in captivity in Gaza. The great-grandmother was among the first group of hostages released on Saturday morning, Australian time, and reunited with their families.

Twelve of the initial group of 13 freed Israelis came from Nir Oz, where one in four residents was either abducted or killed on October 7. Ten Thai nationals and a citizen from the Philippines were also released followed by a second group of 13 Israelis on Sunday morning Australian time.

In exchange, Israel released the first 39 of an expected 150 Palestinian prisoners on the first day of a planned four-day pause in fighting.

“We are very moved [by] her strength and from the way she was able to survive this experience,” Adva said in a video posted to social media on Sunday.

However, the joy at Yaffa’s release was tempered by the fact that her grandson Tamir, a 38-year-old father of two who was also taken hostage on October 7, remains kidnapped in Gaza.

Yaffa did not know during her captivity that many of her neighbours had been abducted or killed, or that Tamir was also being held hostage, her family members have said.

Reunited with her grandmother, Adva is now focussed on securing her cousin’s freedom.

“The fight is not over until all of the hostages will be back,” Adva said. “I ask you, all the international community, don’t stop fighting. We will fight for all of them, we will demand their return.”

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