SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A Carmel Valley man has reunited with his kidnapped mother, freed by Hamas a few days ago.
“The level of cruelty, you just cannot comprehend it,” said Rotem Cooper in a previous interview.
Cooper spoke to ABC 10News from Israel in mid-October, about the kidnapping of his 84-year-old father, Amiram, and his 79-year-old mother, Nurit.
Video shows bullet holes on the outside and inside of the couple's home in a kibbutz near Gaza.
Cooper had just returned to San Diego on Monday, from a meeting with politicians in Washington D.C, when he learned his mother was one of two elderly women freed by Hamas.
Guri Stark, a close friend of Cooper's, has spoken to Cooper's wife since the release of his mother, which sent him back to Israel.
“There is a relief, and he went right back to see her and to hug her, and to tell her how much we care,” said Stark.
Cooper, who has declined interviews about his mother's release, told ABC 10News in a statement:
“We are together with my mother, and we continue to call for the release of my father.”
Stark says his friend's relief is only a partial relief.
“You carry a heavy burden on your shoulders, because the father is still not there, and the rest of the people in captivity,” said Stark.
In a news conference, Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, the other woman released, and a neighbor from Nurit's kibbutz, spoke about being beaten by kidnappers, before being marched through underground tunnels, where she held and treated more humanely, receiving medicines.
Cooper said previously, both his mother and father didn't have critical medications with them.
“I’m glad that they are given some medications, but I’m not sure if they gave them all of that, but that doesn’t change at all, the feeling of all the horrible things they’ve done,” said Stark.
As Cooper's family rallies around his mother, Stark worries about the impact of the trauma on her.
In the words of the other released hostage, “I've been through hell.”
