Relatives rejoiced this weekend after 36-year-old Israeli-American Sagui Dekel Chen was released by Hamas and reunited with his wife and three daughters after nearly 500 days in captivity.
"We are so thrilled that Sagui is home and safe and back with his family," said his stepmother, Gillian Kaye, who lives in Sarasota.
Kaye declined to comment further, saying the family had decided not to make any statements to the media until her husband speaks publicly on the matter later this week.
Sagui Dekel-Chen was part of the sixth group of hostages released by Hamas in the first phase of a ceasefire deal that began in January.
He was among 251 people taken hostage during the deadly Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel in which some 1,200 people were killed.
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A total of 73 hostages remain in Gaza. Israel has said as many as half of them are believed to be dead.
Dekel-Chen's family says he managed to get his pregnant wife and two daughters into a safe room before he was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.
His youngest daughter was born while he was in captivity and marked her first birthday in December 2024.
Until this weekend, his family had not heard any word about him since late 2023.
In an interview with WUSF in January, Kaye described her stepson as someone who "lights up a room. He is funny, he is warm, he's silly, he's incredibly creative. He's an incredible father."
He bought an old bus, renovated it and turned it into a mobile grocery store to go into communities in the south of Israel that were food deserts, she said. He also loves baseball and played for the Israeli national team.
According to reports in Israeli media, Dekel-Chen said he was tortured by his captors during interrogations, and he had no idea if his family had survived the Oct. 7 attack until recently.
Dekel-Chen was reportedly held in Khan Yunis, hundreds of yards from his home in kibbutz Nir Oz. He was held captive for 498 days.
In the months since, Israeli military strikes in Gaza have killed close to 62,000 Palestinians, according to an updated toll from Gaza Government Information Office, which is part of the Hamas-run government.
