No hotel is quite like it. It houses people who have had their faces on the front pages of newspapers all over the world. Others have had audiences with presidents, prime ministers, popes. Days are spent crying, hugging and – perhaps more unexpectedly – laughing.

This is the hostage hotel where, slowly, the Israelis who were held in the most appalling conditions by Hamas terrorists for 16 months are coming to terms with their new normal. It is a cocoon-like environment for post-hospital care – which is why The Telegraph is not reporting its name – to protect people who are both physically and mentally beginning their journeys to health and starting their lives again.

“It is quite a surreal place, a surreal experience to be there,” says Michael Levy, whose brother Or was released on February 8 – one of three men whose startlingly emaciated appearances was a reminder of the horrific conditions the hostages have been held in.

“Over this time, the other hostage families have become my family. But now I see the hostages too, and that feels strange because I am used to seeing their faces in this little picture... then you see them in real life and they have a voice and they are taller or shorter than you imagined. For the hostages, it helps – in the hotel you can see them talking between themselves about their experiences, even if they never met before.”

Several floors of the specialist hotel, which is used mainly by patients of the nearest hospital, have been reserved just for hostages – and for the past few weeks the number of them has grown. Emily Damari, the 28-year-old British-Israeli citizen released by Hamas last month, was taken to the hotel after being reunited with her mother Mandy following her release.