October 7 · Personal story
Channa Peri
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Kibbutz Nirim
Current outcome
Released alive · November 24, 2023
Released alive on November 24, 2023 after 49 days in captivity.
01
Before October 7
Channa Peri was born Denise Adele Levy in Johannesburg. Her daughter Ayelet Svatitzky said she also spent time in Gqeberha, then called Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town. She moved to Israel in the 1960s with her sister Leonore and brother Raymond. At Kibbutz Nirim she met British-born Rafi Popplewell; they married and had three children. They later divorced but remained close. Peri managed the kibbutz grocery and sewing shop, which made children’s clothes. Ayelet remembered her as a gentle, patient grandmother who visited the family for Shabbat weekends. In 2023 she was 79 and needed insulin every day for diabetes.
02
October 7
On October 7, 2023, Peri was at her home in Nirim when her daughter called to warn her that armed men had entered the kibbutz. Ayelet heard an unfamiliar voice in the background and called her brother Nadav, who lived nearby. The family later received an image from Peri’s phone showing her and Nadav in the living room, with the message “Hamas.” Peri and Nadav were taken from the community; her older son Roi was killed near his home that day.
03
Captivity
Peri spent 49 days in captivity. In a November 9, 2023 interview, her daughter described the uncertainty before her return: the family did not know where she and Nadav were held or whether they received food and medication. Both had diabetes, and Peri needed daily insulin. Ayelet had tried to alert friends in Nirim during the attack, but nobody had been able to reach them. Their last images from her mother’s phone showed Peri and Nadav with an armed man. Ayelet campaigned for their return while her children struggled with the kidnapping of their grandmother and uncle.
04
Return
Peri was released alive on November 24, 2023, after 49 days in captivity, in the first release agreement. She was taken to Wolfson Medical Center for examinations. On November 26 she left the hospital accompanied by its director and nursing director, while relatives and staff applauded and held Israeli flags. Her son Nadav remained captive. The hospital’s account described joy at her return alongside pain and hope for those still in Gaza.
05
Aftermath
At an April 2024 event marking 200 days since the abductions, Peri spoke about still feeling mentally in captivity. She asked those still held to keep holding on. On June 3, 2024, the IDF announced that her son Nadav had died in captivity. His body was recovered from a tunnel in Khan Yunis in an operation announced on August 20, 2024. Her return in November had preceded both that announcement and the recovery of her son’s body.