October 7 · Personal story
Doron Katz Asher
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Her mother’s home in Kibbutz Nir Oz; Doron and her daughters were visitors from Ganot Hadar.
Current outcome
Released alive · November 24, 2023
Released alive in Israel with Aviv and Raz on November 24, 2023, after 49 days in captivity.
01
A mother from Ganot Hadar
Doron Katz Asher lived in Ganot Hadar with Yoni and their daughters, Raz and Aviv. She worked as an accountant for the real-estate company AFI Properties. Over the holiday weekend, she took the girls to visit her mother, Efrat Katz, and Efrat’s partner, Gadi Moses, in Nir Oz. Yoni stayed at home. The visit meant that Doron and the children were at her mother’s house when the attack reached the kibbutz on October 7.
02
From a visit to captivity
Doron sent her family updates as she heard explosions and then heavy gunfire. KAN’s account traces the morning from preparing food for the girls to entering the safe room. Attackers took Efrat, Doron, Raz and Aviv away on a tractor. Doron told an Israeli television interviewer that she and Aviv were lightly wounded during the journey and that her mother was killed. In Gaza, a captor stitched Doron’s wounds without anesthesia while the girls stayed beside her. In her later account, she described holding them close as they watched.
03
Caring for two young children
Doron and the girls spent their first 16 days in a family apartment. Guards gave them paper and colored pencils. Doron began teaching Raz to write Hebrew, starting with the word for father. She tried to appear calm for both children and told them they would return home. They were then taken on a nighttime walk to a hospital. Doron described a locked room shared with other captives, sealed windows and no mattresses. They needed permission to use the toilet. Food arrived irregularly, and she gave the children some of her own portions. They drew foods they missed and played with homemade cards. In an interview originally published in December 2024, Doron identified the hospital as Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and described spending 33 days there. She said she sometimes kept the girls asleep later because there was little food available earlier in the day.
04
Released with her daughters
Doron, Raz and Aviv were released together on November 24, 2023, after 49 days. They returned to Israel and reunited with Yoni at Schneider Children’s Medical Center. In a video published on November 25, Raz told her father she had dreamed they were going home. Yoni reassured her that they were home and would leave the hospital after the doctors checked them. The family shared the reunion video through the hospital with permission.
05
A public account one year later
In an interview first published on December 30, 2024, Doron described the girls back in kindergarten, seeing friends, attending activities and celebrating birthdays. She said the children still brought up memories of captivity and sometimes used words they had learned in Arabic. The interview was republished in May 2025 with an update after Doron gave birth to a third daughter. The original account had described Raz and Aviv looking forward to a baby sister. Doron also spoke about the loss of her mother, Efrat, and her brother, Ravid. Returning home brought the children back to daily routines while the family continued living with those losses.