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‘Indescribable feelings’: Freed Palestinian prisoner cherishes first morning at home with family
Released Palestinian prisoner Zaid Junaidi says he feels as if he’s been “reborn” after reuniting with his family in Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
Junaidi, who spent his first morning with his wife and children after two years in Israeli detention on Tuesday, told the Reuters news agency that it was an “indescribable” feeling to share a morning meal at home again.
“It’s a different kind of morning, with the children. I left Izzaldin when he was two years old, now he is a young boy of four years, who knows and jokes with me – indescribable feelings, it’s difficult to describe in words,” he said.
Junaidi, who had been in detention while awaiting trial on charges of membership in a Palestinian faction, said he had not expected to be released so soon
“When I got the news that I will be released, I could not handle it. I did not cry; I was in shock for about 10 minutes, maybe, I did not know what to do, to be happy, to cry… And in the Red Cross buses, we expected every minute to be brought back to prison, because this happened before, and we were not relieved until we got off the bus and greeted our families. We were not expecting to go home,” he said.
Released Palestinian prisoner Zaid Junaidi sits with his children in his home in Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank October 14
Israel’s siege of Gaza reduced food supplies available to captives: Report
The father of freed captive Nimrod Cohen says that the food rations for Israelis held in Gaza ran low when Netanyahu’s government blocked humanitarian aid into the Strip, according to the Haaretz newspaper.
Yehuda Cohen made the comments a day after his son’s release.
He said Nimrod Cohen’s “manner of speech is the same manner of speech, his mood is his mood” since his return. But he said, for him, the war “has not ended on the national level”.
“We have to make sure that those responsible for the incident, primarily the [Israeli] prime minister, step aside.”
Israel’s total blockade of Gaza triggered a famine in the territory with hundreds, including children, dying of hunger.
Released Israeli captive, Nimrod Cohen, greets his family in Reim, Israel on October 13, 2025
