American-Israeli hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen spent “the vast majority” of his almost 500 days in captivity not knowing that his family had survived Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack or that his wife had given birth to their third child while he was held in Gaza, his father told NBC News.
The 36-year old was released from Hamas captivity on Saturday along with two other hostages in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. He is the second U.S. citizen after Keith Siegel, 65, to be freed in phase one of the ceasefire and hostage release deal.
His father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, said in an interview Monday that his son, who was wounded in his right shoulder and his left leg when he was kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 2023 Hamas-led attack, “was given minimal medical treatment once he got to Gaza.”
“There was no follow-up treatment, and so there’s considerable damage,” he said. “He was in the tunnels for the vast majority of the time. Even in the short period that he was aboveground, there was no sunlight whatsoever,” he added.
On the morning of the attack, Dekel-Chen put his wife, Avital Dekel-Chen, 34, and their two daughters, Bar, 7, and Gali, 3, into the safe room of their home. He then went out to confront the militants storming their kibbutz and was taken captive.
He was one of around 250 people taken hostage on a day that also saw 1,200 killed, according to Israeli tallies.
Avital Dekel-Chen was seven months pregnant when her husband was kidnapped and gave birth to their third daughter two months later.
Dekel-Chen spent most of his 498 days in Gaza unsure whether his wife and daughters were still alive, Jonathan Dekel-Chen said.
“In the tunnels, they’re in a complete information vacuum,” he said. “And so Sagui only began to piece together a partial picture two days before he was released.”
Only then was he able to pick up “bits of information here and there, which led him to believe that his wife and two older daughters survived,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen said, but “he still didn’t know whether his third daughter had survived, if she was ever born.”
During the pregnancy, Dekel-Chen jokingly referred to the unborn baby as Mazal, an old-fashioned name meaning “luck” in Hebrew, Jonathan Dekel-Chen said.
Moments after Dekel-Chen was reunited with his wife in southern Israel on Saturday, she told him she had named their daughter, Shachar Mazal. Shachar is the Hebrew word for “dawn.”
Video released by the Israel Defense Forces of the reunion shows Dekel-Chen becoming emotional after he learned the name of the baby he never met.
“Wow, perfect,” he whispered in response. “What a name.”
Later, he held year-old Shachar for the first time at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv, where he also reunited with Bar and Gali.
“There are not words in the English language or any other language that I know that can truly express the power of that moment, of his reunion with his little girls.” Jonathan Dekel-Chen said.
In the lead up to Saturday’s exchange, which also saw Sasha Alexander Troufanov, 29, and Yair Horn, 46, freed by Hamas, the militant group had threatened to indefinitely delay the release of the hostages, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire by not allowing temporary shelters and heavy digging equipment into the Gaza Strip.
That sparked a furious reaction from both Israel and President Donald Trump, who warned that unless they were freed, “all hell is going to break loose” in Gaza, where health officials say more than 48,000 people have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign Oct. 7, 2023.
The first phase of the agreement — which calls for the release of 33 hostages in exchange for a six-week ceasefire and the release of around 1,900 prisoners and detainees — is due to expire March 2.
Negotiations are underway to try to reach the second phase of the agreement, which would see the release of all living hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners and detainees, a permanent ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
Ultimately, ahead of Dekel-Chen’s release, both sides backed down and reverted to the original terms of the ceasefire brokered by Qatar and 369 Palestinian prisoners were freed in exchange for the three men.
The days of uncertainty were “brutal” as they waited to see if the ceasefire would collapse, Jonathan Dekel-Chen said, adding, “honestly, it was terrifying, not just for us but for the families of all of the remaining hostages.”
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