Israeli woman celebrates release of four relatives held hostage

(NewsNation) — Hamas militants took five of Efrat Machikawa’s family members hostage on Oct. 7. Since then, four of the five have been released. It was believed that the fifth hostage, Machikawa’s uncle, was still being held hostage by the terrorist organization.

Margalit Moses, 78; Doron Katz-Asher, 34; Raz Asher, 4; and Aviv Asher, 2, have all been freed from Hamas’ captivity. Machikawa’s uncle and Margalit Moses’ ex-husband Gadi Moses, 80, is still being held hostage.

However, Machikawa and her family received the news on Tuesday morning that another relative, Doron Katz-Asher’s brother, was killed by Hamas militants.

“I was hoping to share a bit of those sparkles of gratefulness. But I just got a message that Doron’s brother, Ravid Katz was murdered,” Machikawa told NewsNation in an interview on “Morning in America.“

Machikawa explained she wanted to share the joy they felt when they were all reunited over the weekend, but the grief from Ravid Katz’s death has outweighed their joy.

“It’s just so sad,” she said. “You know, every minute things change here, and we are so worried about the others. We have absolutely no proof of life from anybody.”

That includes proof of whether Gadi Moses is still alive or not.

Machikawa said there’s still a lot of work to be done to bring home the rest of the hostages, including her uncle and other elderly hostages. She wants the world to understand the catastrophe of the Hamas terror attack and its enormous ramifications.

“I’m on such a roller coaster,” she said.

One moment, Machikawa feels grateful and ecstatic that her family members have been returned home, and the next moment she is reminded of everyone in the kibbutz who was killed and tortured on Oct. 7. But all she can do in this moment is work on helping the remaining hostages get home safely.