Hostage Iair Horn, the 46-year-old brother to 38-year-old hostage Eitan Horn, is expected to return home to Israel as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Iair and Eitan were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz together. However, they will likely now return separately. Eitan was visiting his brother on October 7, otherwise living in central Israel with their mother.
The family was notified by the men of sirens blaring, although none knew that Hamas had invaded southern Israel at that time. Subjected to days of silence, not knowing of their sons’ whereabouts, a liaison officer told them days later that the boys had been abducted, the family told Haaretz.
The family made aliyah from Argentina, with Iair eventually moving to Israel last.
“He gives everything he has to the kibbutz, just like a veteran member. He organizes all the holidays and celebrations,” mother Ruth Strum told the Jerusalem Post in February. “He even does stand-up, radio broadcasting, and manages the local pub at Nir Oz, making a mobile pub on wheels during COVID-19, going house to house to bring his neighbors and friends drinks,” Ruty says.
"It is not easy for a mother to hear this," Strum told Reuters. "But what will happen at the moment when they are separated and told that one is coming out and the other is not? I know that their strength is to be together, to be there for each other."
Signs of life
The two men were last confirmed alive in testimonies shared by released hostages in November, under a past deal. Since then, little has been shared about their welfare.
“The kids are effectively well; they are alive, which is the most important thing,” their father, Itzik Horn, announced to Argentine news agency Télam. “Now, we need to be patient because this will drag on.”
"They said that they were not injured," Strum recounted. "At first, they were held in an apartment but were later moved to the tunnels."
Before Hamas's attacks
Before their abduction, both the Horn brothers were passionate about travel, the Rolling Stones and Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
Itzik has been critical of the weekly demonstrations demanding a deal, claiming to Haaretz that while he is not “pro-Bibi,” he claimed “Kaplan is detrimental to “widespread support…[e]ven though they are well-intentioned."
Speaking of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair, Itzak insisted, “he sent him to Gaza to bring back my Yair, so I can hug and kiss him" - noting the prime minister had flown his plane to Miami to hug and kiss Yair Netanyahu on his birthday, a privilege not shared by the hostages’s families.
“Get our children out,” Itzak insisted. “Then do with Gaza whatever you want."