Yesterday, after 246 days into the war, the four hostages Noa Argamani, Almog Meir, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv were rescued from Hamas captivity in a daring military operation - safe and sound.
This morning, Rosa Ziv, Shlomi's mother, was interviewed by Maariv and talked about the exciting reunion with her son. She explained that she didn't know if he was still alive or what condition he would be in. "The joy is great, it cannot be described in words. I still do not realize that he is here. I believed that Shlomi would return with all my might; you have to believe in the good, and it will be good," Ziv told Maariv.
She described the moment she found out he had been rescued from captivity, "At first, I heard unfounded rumors that he was rescued, but I didn't believe he was coming back until the IDF officially informed us that he was on his way. After a few hours, we met him at Tel Hashomer Hospital [Sheba Medical Center]," Ziv said.
"As I recall, on October 7, Shlomi went to work at the Nova Festival as a security guard as part of the production of the party with his two friends - the late Aviv Eliyahu, the cousin of Shlomi's wife, and the late Jake Marlowe - who were murdered at the party. When the attack began, Ziv remained in the area of the event and helped the partygoers until he was kidnapped to the Gaza Strip," Ziv added.
"When we met him at the hospital, the reunion was exactly as I had imagined. My daughter-in-law and I arrived together, I let her approach him first, they hugged and then my son hugged me, and called me mom with tears of joy. Shlomi did not know that his two friends had been murdered, so he asked us what happened to them. Miren, his wife, told him that 'we will talk about Aviv and Jack,' he then realized that they were dead and started crying.
As expected, he took it very hard and said, 'I'm guilty.' We told him that he was not guilty of anything," Ziv said.
According to his mother, the family is still at Sheba Medical Center, and Shlomi is undergoing a series of tests. "He has lost a lot of weight, but in general, feels fine," Ziv said of her son's condition. "He was not physically harmed. He passed the time playing rummy with other hostages and was not aware of everything that was happening in Israel or exposed to Israeli media."
'It was a shock for him'
She further said, "We had to tell him everything that had taken place here in the country since October 7. He knew nothing, and it was a shock for him. He also said that he and the other hostages knew that the IDF was fighting in Gaza. They heard the fighting and prayed for the safety of the soldiers. He hasn't shared much about what he's been through; we're not pressuring him, and we're here for him for anything. We'll have more difficult and difficult days."
As mentioned, Shlomi lives in Elkosh, a moshav on the northern border, whose residents have not been officially evacuated. Due to the proximity to the border and the many threats from the terrorist organization Hezbollah, his family is still discussing whether to return or not after they chose to leave temporarily.