Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> and Hamas leaders will see the deal through.<\/p>\n\u201cI know there has been a great deal of pressure from the U.S. government on Netanyahu, which is what was needed,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd he has agreed, which was, for us, the most important part. I also know that the Arab nations have put tremendous pressure on Hamas and really backed them into a corner. So that\u2019s why I\u2019m feeling generally confident right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still \u2026<\/p>\n
She pauses for a second to consider the possibility the deal could unravel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything could always fall through,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think my family could be kidnapped ever. I now know anything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Why do they want to kill me?’<\/p>\n
When David and Ariel come home \u2013 and she believes they will \u2013 the trauma of the past two years won\u2019t be over.<\/p>\n
Sharon has been doing her best to raise the twins by herself while fighting for David\u2019s release, Zeitchik said. She hides her depression by putting on a happy face for the girls. They\u2019re 5 now and have gone two years without their dad. They still play the silly games he taught them. They wear T-shirts embossed with a color photo of his smiling face. They freak out at the sound of \u201cred alert\u201d sirens warning of falling rockets.<\/p>\n
Amelia, now 7, vividly remembers the kidnapping, the bad guys who took them away, the awful food they ate and how the water in the shower was frozen. The times they\u2019ve had to take refuge in a bomb shelter have been especially distressing for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy do they want to kill me?\u201d she asks.<\/p>\n
The state provides trauma counseling, and the girls\u2019 mothers have a great deal of support from family, friends and others helping them cope, Zeitchik said. The children are resilient in the way kids are, she said, \u201cbut they carry a great deal of trauma from their time in captivity that we\u2019re still dealing with and probably will for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
David and Ariel, missing now for 737 days, will need time for healing when they return. Israeli hospitals are gearing up to receive all of the hostages once they are released. Physicians will monitor their medical condition and needs and see what complications may have arisen during their captivity.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not certain how long they will be in the hospital. But when they finally come home, the family is ready to embrace them with all the love they need during their journey to recovery, Zeitchik said.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 10, Zeitchik boarded another plane in New York and headed to Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She had scheduled the trip before the peace deal was announced, before she knew David and Ariel would be coming home. Yet she held out hope that, while there, the family would again be made whole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hoping,\u201d she said, \u201cthe universe would give me a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
At last, she thinks it has.<\/p>\n
Contributing: Joey Garrison<\/p>\n
Michael Collins writes about the intersection of politics and culture. A veteran reporter, he has covered the White House and Congress. Follow him on X @mcollinsNEWS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alana Zeitchik \u2013 like President Donald Trump \u2013 is headed to Israel where her family will finally be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[8521,323,83757,6505,29285,6178,10957,16350,5483,32,7477,8519,2194,163522,134528,835,3823,88297,837,30780,163523,96880,839,2193,5488,12,5179,5496,11760,11771,1426,8527,11761,16346,1757,5181,49,978,659,8520,8529,771,17773,26,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-497386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-benjamin","11":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","12":"tag-collins","13":"tag-conflict","14":"tag-death","15":"tag-death-u0026-tragedy","16":"tag-donald","17":"tag-donald-trump","18":"tag-east","19":"tag-enabled","20":"tag-gaza","21":"tag-gaza-israel","22":"tag-gaza-israel-conflict","23":"tag-hamas","24":"tag-highlights","25":"tag-hostages","26":"tag-israel","27":"tag-michael","28":"tag-michael-collins","29":"tag-middle","30":"tag-middle-east","31":"tag-netanyahu","32":"tag-neutral","33":"tag-news","34":"tag-overall","35":"tag-overall-neutral","36":"tag-sensitive","37":"tag-sensitive-subjects","38":"tag-story","39":"tag-story-highlights-ai-enabled","40":"tag-subjects","41":"tag-tragedy","42":"tag-trump","43":"tag-u0026","44":"tag-united-states","45":"tag-us","46":"tag-usa","47":"tag-violence","48":"tag-violence-u0026-abuse","49":"tag-war","50":"tag-war-u0026-conflict","51":"tag-world","52":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/86506579007-rachel-goldberg-polin.jpg\"\/)
![\"play\"](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\"){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n