Shaked Haran celebrates the return of six family members from Gaza, including her mother and sister. She fears for her brother-in-law in the hands of Hamas. She mourns her father. And she is heavily pregnant. How does she stand this?
Was it Monday? Or Tuesday? Silly things like days of the week can easily get tangled up in Shaked Haran’s head these days. She doesn’t remember exactly when she left the hospital with her family. What she knows is that it was the night from Saturday to Sunday when her world changed for the better again. Six of her relatives are in hostage after 50 days Gaza back where they belong: in Israel.
Haran, 33, sits in a brightly furnished room in a large apartment Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv. Her family stayed here. Here life should open a new chapter. In an empty relatives’ house. “We can stay for a while until we figure out how to move forward,” Haran says.
Her curly hair is piled askew on her head. She looks tired, done. She spontaneously postponed a video conversation the day before. Now she wants to talk. And that’s not easy. She is not allowed to answer some questions. Some she doesn’t want to answer. And some questions may just be too difficult to answer, as easy as they may sound.
How are you doing?
I am extremely happy, excited and grateful to be with my loved ones again. We’ve been waiting for this day for so long. But it’s complicated. There are many things to catch up on that are not so easy. And: We can’t celebrate until my brother-in-law and the other hostages are back.