Time to heal

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Tuesday, June 18th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The condition of the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza. CNN put the question to a senior Hamas leader.

REPORTER: How many of those 120 are still alive?

OSAMA HAMDAN: I don’t have any idea about that. No one has an idea about this.

WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has the story.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: When Israeli forces do get an idea of the whereabouts of hostages—as they did two weekends ago—they move quickly.

You’ll hear the name Andrey amid the chaos. This is bodycam footage of the Israeli rescue operation.

AUDIO: [Sound of IDF rescue]

Four people in total rescued.

Russian-Israeli Andrey Kozlov was one of them. His mother Evgeniia Kozlova marks on her son’s hostage poster that he’s free.

KOZLOVA: [English] At home. [Russian] At home. [English] At home.

At home, but not near ready to speak to media about his ordeal. His girlfriend Jennifer Master spoke for him about that, describing the psychological games Kozlov’s captors would play. One day threatening his life, one day expressing affection, but always saying Kozlov had no future beyond Gaza.

MASTER: ‘You, tomorrow in the grave, dead.’ (GESTURING) And the day after he would tell him ‘I love you.’ Like, he made a lot of games, he would say ‘No one waits for you.’

His family, of course, was waiting but with little expectation.

Andrey’s father Mikhail.

MIKHAIL: [In Russian] He is a man, and it was difficult to imagine that even if a deal was concluded, he would be among the first to be released.

He’s saying that men, especially young men, are less likely to be freed, even in a hostage-release deal. It’s usually women, children, and the elderly.

But a military rescue is different. Israeli forces act on an intelligence report and come in guns blazing. They save whomever they can save.

Andrey Kozlov—still mum about what happened to him—displays what might be the equivalent of “survivor’s guilt.”

KOZLOV: I can’t feel, like, all the happiness from this situation because I was rescued and they are not. They are still there. In Gaza.

Last weekend, he made a plea for the remaining hostages.

KOZLOV: It’s only one decision. Only one. It is the deal between Israel and Hamas. I ask to bring them home as soon as possible. Israel, world, Hamas, I ask you to make a deal as soon as possible.

He’s talking about the multi-phased U.S.-backed proposal that includes a full cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas of Gaza. Under the deal, Hamas would free a number of hostages and in exchange Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Secretary of State Tony Blinken expressed annoyance with Hamas for coming back with additional demands.

BLINKEN: Hamas has proposed numerous changes to the proposal that was on the table. Some of the changes are workable. Some are not.

Blinken spoke yesterday with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia and State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the two addressed ongoing efforts to make a deal. Miller had nothing further to add.

Miller last week did address criticism of Israel that when its military forces rescued Kozlov and the three others that scores of Palestinians were killed. Washington’s position is: Hamas has no business taking hostages in the first place.

MILLER: Number one, Israel has a right – as any country does – to try and rescue hostages that were taken. Hostages never should have been held for more than eight months. They should’ve been released a long time ago. They should be released today. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is that Hamas opened fire and that prompted an intense firefight. Miller said it’s important to note that it wasn’t just Israeli soldiers firing as they executed the raid. Civilians did regrettably get caught in the crossfire—whether it was the Hamas number of 270 or the Israeli number of less than 100.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the efforts of Israeli soldiers and renewed his commitment to securing the release of the remaining hostages.

NETANYAHU: We're committed to getting the release of all the hostages and we expect Hamas to release them all. And if they don't, we'll do whatever it takes to get them all back home.

Israel reports that 116 hostages are still being held by Hamas, though they believe about a third of that number are already dead.

There’s a sense in which Andrey Kozlov cannot believe he’s among the living.

EVGENIIA: [In Russian] Andrey told us: ‘There are some things I will never tell you’. I don't know what he didn't tell us and what he doesn't want to ever tell us.

His mother—Evgeniia Kozlova—saying here there are some things Andrey will never tell about what happened while he was in captivity.

MASTER: Right now he just has a lot of gratitude that he's alive. That he survived it.

Andrey’s girlfriend Jennifer Master says he’s highly emotional. He does smile occasionally, but what he needs most is time to heal, to fix his mind.

MASTER: It's hard for him to make decisions, and the first night he also whispered, he talked to me like this (WHISPERING), he whispered. And I always say, and I always tell him, 'Andrey talk like this, you can talk, talk.'

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

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