Melbourne’s Jewish community celebrates rare good news as hostage released

Dan Monheit was about to go for a bike ride in Melbourne when he heard the news that his family never thought it would hear –beloved matriarch, Margalit Moses, had been released by Hamas.

An Israeli soldier embraces former captive Margalit Moses upon her arrival in Israel, following her release by Hamas with 23 other hostages on Friday. Picture: AFP/ Israeli Army

Dan Monheit was about to go for a bike ride in Melbourne when he heard the news that his family never thought it would hear.

Its beloved matriarch, Margalit Moses, a 78-year-old mother of three and grandmother of 10, had been released by Hamas.

Within seconds his phone all-but melted from hundreds of celebratory messages from across Melbourne’s Jewish community as it embraced as one this rare piece of happy news after a wretched two months.

The last glimpse anyone had of the retired schoolteacher was a photo of her being bundled, terrified, into a golf cart by Hamas and driven from her kibbutz into Gaza during the terrorist group’s murderous rampage in southern Israel on October 7.

Now she was back in the arms of her loved ones, smiling as she posed for a picture in Israel with some of her family after being one of the first hostages released by the militants at the weekend.

Daniel Monheit. Picture: Julian Kingma/TWAM

“I felt relief, I felt joy, I almost felt disbelief that this was actually happening,’ Mr Monheit, 42, said about learning of the release of his father’s cousin.

“Then almost immediately I felt sadness and heartbreak for the 227 people whose names are on that list of hostages.”

Like all of the families of the hostages, Mr Monheit’s family had gone through hell and back during her seven weeks as a prisoner of Hamas.

He said the family never gave up hoping but it also knew her health was poor and had no idea what sort of conditions she was being kept under.

“We absolutely didn’t give up but there is also just a pragmatism of knowing she is in her late 70s and she’s on medications and we had no information about her and her condition,” Mr Monheit said.

He said Ms Moses seemed physically well and in good spirits but he didn’t yet know how the ­ordeal has affected her. “Obviously people come out smiling and waving but we have no idea psychologically how they are,” he said.

“I think the next few days and weeks will be quite difficult for her to adjust and resume normal life given what she has endured.

“I mean, none of them would probably have had any idea of the scale of what transpired in Israel on that day.”

He said she also may not have a home to return to after so many homes in her community, the Nir Oz kibbutz, were destroyed by the terrorist attacks.

But as well as relief, Mr Monheit also said he felt anger about the price that Israel had to pay in order to secure the release of 50 hostages.

Under the deal, which is still unfolding, Israel will release 150 people, mostly women and youths, from its prisons in return for 50 hostages held by Hamas.

“What we have received back from Hamas are babies and children and grandmothers whose only crime has been to be Jewish,” he said. “But what we have given back are convicted terrorists, people who have stabbed police officers, people who have detonated car bombs in civilian areas, all at a ratio of three of theirs to one of ours. The equivalencies that are being played out are horrible.”

Mr Monheit said despite the ongoing conflict, he and his family were already booked to fly to Israel next year to be reunited with Ms Moses. “It’s gonna take something pretty spectacular to stop us getting on our plane,” he said. “There are going to be lots of tears and hugs. Even though we are so far away, I’ve never felt closer to them than now.”