Israel-Hamas War

Joy and relief: Gaza hostage release hits home for South Florida brothers

Their cousin, Agam Berger, is now safe in Israel after 482 days imprisoned in Gaza. 

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One South Florida family saw one of its own reunite with family in Israel after being held hostage by Hamas. NBC6’s Ari Odzer reports

Every hostage release is emotional for the Jewish community, but Thursday’s events, in which three Israelis and five Thai nationals were set free from Hamas captivity in exchange for 110 convicted Palestinian prisoners, really hit home for Ronald and Edward Bakalarz. 

Their cousin, Agam Berger, is now safe in Israel after 482 days imprisoned in Gaza. 

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“How can you describe that emotion?” Edward Bakalarz said as we watched videos on social media showing Agam reuniting with her family. 

“God bless ‘em, my only hope is that she is able to recuperate,” Ronald Bakalarz added. 

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It’s personal for these brothers. Seeing their cousin reunited with family and friends is a moment they’ve been hoping and praying for since October 7 of 2023. We met them at their synagogue, the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. 

I asked Edward what he was thinking when he saw the videos of Agam being released. 

“Cry, that’s the first thing that came to my mind, actually, right now, just a lot of excitement that she’s free, concern about that year and a half affected her life, the impact it had on our family,” he said through tears. 

The reunion scenes are saturated with joy and relief.

“On the one hand, a lot of emotion, a lot of happiness for the family, on the other hand, I thought it was disgusting the way that they paraded her and all the other hostages who were released, making an absolute show of this whole thing,” Ronald Bakalarz said. 

Hamas could have just transferred the hostages to Red Cross vans. Instead, they surrounded them with armed, masked men in uniforms, making them essentially get through a gauntlet to freedom. They even staged a ceremony, making the hostages smile and wave on a stage. 

“So humiliating,” Edward said as we watched the videos of those scenes. 

Hamas was putting the hostages through one last bout of psychological torture. It makes the homecoming even sweeter. For every hostage released, the synagogue is taping a yellow ribbon onto its giant “Bring Them Home Now” dog-tag installation. Today, Ronald and Edward did the honors, with eight new ribbons, 82 more to go, and maybe a permanent cease-fire on the horizon.

“The hope is that we can end the war, the reality is that it’s quite obvious that Hamas is not interested in ending it,” Ronald Bakalarz said. 

Ronald says he’s been to Israel several times since Oct. 7 to be with his family there, to support them as much as possible, and he says they’re all praying for the rest of the hostages to come home soon.

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