The remaining surviving held by Hamas and more than 1,950 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel were returned to their homelands as part of the latest deal.
But those released from captivity may still have a long road of rehabilitation ahead.
While some may find their return to a normal life more difficult than others, it’s impossible anticipate how each individual will experience the process.
“In rehabilitation medicine, we don’t speak about cure but, rather, care,” said Avi Ohry, a doctor specializing in rehabilitation medicine who has worked in Israeli and global health for more than 50 years.
Dignity is an essential first step
The first essential step must be the presence of empathy and a restoration of dignity, Ohry said.
Even achieving these outcomes can be a slow process, said Ohry, who himself was a prisoner of war during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
“Empathy, that’s the key,” Ohry told DW.
“To shower, to eat something, to drink something, to see their loved ones.”
Immediate medical and mental health care is also crucial.
Throughout the two years of the Israel-Hamas conflict, international observers and UN human rights experts have stated Israeli hostages were subjected to torture and sexual abuse in captivity, and Palestinian prisoners and detainees experienced torture, sexual and gender-based violence in Israeli facilities.
Ohry said Israeli and Palestinian medical professionals will need to learn what pre-capture life was like for each individual, and the conditions they were subjected to during capture.
“How much they suffered, how much were interrogated or tortured,” Ohry said, “What they were deprived of: food, water, everything.”
It’s likely some held in captivity may be malnourished and require careful management to ensure a safe return to healthy nutrition .
And then there’s the need for psychological care and a well-managed debriefing.
Debriefing and mental health care must be handled with sensitivity
“They have to be debriefed about whatever experiences they passed through,” said Khadar Rasras, general director and senior clinical psychologist at the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in the . “And also to instill hope into their minds and hearts again.”
Hostage International, a British NGO advocating for victims of hostage taking, notes that the debriefingt process needs to be expert-managed and allow for support by trauma specialists.
As well as psychological trauma, physical injuries can also impact recovery.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is one of the most severe outcomes that can emerge for hostage victims or people detained during conflict situations.
This and other conditions manifest differently for different people. Some former hostages and detainees may never experience PTSD. Others may experience symptoms immediately — or for the first time decades after release.
“It should be a tailor-made program for each [survivor],” Ohry said. “After the medical checkup in the hospital, they are discharged home, you can continue interviews with empathy, slow moving, a slow process of retrieving information.”
“Not all prisoners of war contract PTSD, at least a third in any phase of life,” he said. “It can be long-term, it can be postponed.”
Re-establishing a place in society
While individual, tailored care is essential for survivors, there is a community care component that cannot be ignored.
Both Ohry and Rasras emphasized the importance of bringing families and tight-knit Israeli and Palestinian communities in on the rehabilitation journey.
This is a process of reintegration. In the home, it means reestablishing the returnee’s role in family life.
“Once the person is able to get along with people around [them], we also try to encourage them to look for a career or profession that [they] can do in order to live a dignified life,” Rasras told DW.
Part of the challenge for Palestinians returning to will be the capacity of local organizations to meet their needs, especially with much of the local health care system devastated by war. Rasras said it’s highly unlikely that providers in the West Bank would be able to accept, let alone treat, released prisoners in need of psychological help, but that resources like support hotlines could potentially help to alleviate some demand.
That’s where families and communities are crucial, whether in Israel or the Palestinian Territories.
“In the later phases [of rehabilitation], occupation, housing, social circles, studies, education, all these phases should be accomplished, not by yourself, but with the aid of those around you: the state itself, the country, the community,” said Ohry.
Even when a returnee has reclaimed their place within their home and community, the ongoing care process is an important final piece.
That’s because even if a person appears well, there is a risk trauma will re-emerge.
“Some people, they really strive well in therapy,” said Rasras, “In others, it takes them longer.”
Both experts DW spoke with for this story emphasized the importance of long-term funding to support returned hostages and detainees in the long term. For Israel, that means the retention of a long-term safety net, said Ohry. For those in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Rasras said the large-scale provision of support services will require international backing.
“It will cost a lot of money,” Rasras said. “So I think it would be important for the international community to support centers which work in this field.”
Edited by: Carla Bleiker
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