“We didn’t know which Ofer we would get back,” Eyal Kalderon, the cousin of ex-Hamas hostage Ofer Kalderon, told JNS on Monday. “The Ofer that we know is the happy, playful Ofer who jokes a lot and puts a smile on everyone’s face the second he enters a room. We didn’t know if we’d get that Ofer back,” he said.

Kalderon, Yarden Bibas and Keith Siegel were freed on Feb. 1 after 484 days in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip. Bibas and Kalderon were handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, while Siegel was released in Gaza City.