Hostage families receive video phone calls from loved ones in Hamas captivity before release

Several families of Israeli hostages were contacted via video phone calls on Monday morning by Hamas terrorists before the planned hostage release, with the terrorists allowing the families to talk to their loved ones.

Hostages Matan Zangauker, Ariel and David Cunio, Elkana Bohbot, Evyatar David, Yosef Ohana, Rom Braslavski, Bar Kuperstein, and Nimrod Cohen each held video calls with relatives on Monday morning ahead of their release. 

The hostages were seen next to masked Hamas terrorists, who were waiting with them at holding sites before the second release. 

UPDATE: EVYATAR DAVID 🎗️
Evyatar David — one of the hostages returning home from Gaza.

Welcome home, Evyatar. 🇮🇱
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Israeli analysts believe that Hamas allowed the phone calls as part of a propaganda campaign in order to try to improve the terror group’s international image after holding the hostages for two years.

As part of the ceasefire agreement negotiated under U.S. President Donald Trump, the terror group was forbidden from holding the staged hostage release ceremonies, as it had previously done.

However, Channel 12 News reported that several of the hostages told their families to distribute the videos of their phone calls, apparently being instructed by Hamas to do so. 

Videos of some of the conversations were posted to social media shortly afterwards. In the videos relatives are seen talking with their loved ones in Gaza ahead of the release. 

Rom Breslavski speaking to his family. pic.twitter.com/JNVslgdfPV

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Silvia Cohen, mother of hostages Ariel and David, said she did not answer the call at first because she did not recognize the phone number. On the second call, however, she answered. She described the moment when she saw her two sons on screen for the first time in two years. 

"They're both fine, what an excitement, I can't believe how cute they are,” she told Channel 12. “David is crying, I love them so much.” 

Julie Kuperstein, the mother of Bar Kuperstein, said she also didn’t answer at first, but then saw "Al-Aqsa Brigades" (the name of Hamas' military wing) on the phone screen. After calling back, she was able to speak with her son. 

Einav Zangauker, the mother of the hostage Matan, and who has been a particularly vocal participant in the hostage rallies, received a phone call from an unidentified number and found herself talking with her son for the first time in two years. 

"God is great, you are coming home," she told her son. "The war is over, you're coming home, there is no war," she added.

The brother of Nimrod Cohen told Channel 12, "We saw Nimrod handsome as ever, what a man, who survived two years in captivity and will soon return home.” 

“It was a conversation of a few seconds,” he noted, but said the family can finally “breathe a sigh of relief. For the first time we are able to breathe properly and soon we will be able to breathe at home. We told him that we were waiting for him and that everyone was fine and that we loved him.” 

Ruhama Bohbot, the mother of hostage Elkana Bohbot, told Channel 13 News, “I got a call from Hamas, maybe he only remembered my phone number,” she explained. “I saw him on video. He looks great, he's smiling.”