October 7 · Personal story
Sahar Kalderon
Abducted
October 7, 2023
Abduction location
Family home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, southern Israel
Current outcome
Released alive · November 27, 2023
Released during the November ceasefire exchange with her brother Erez; their father Ofer remained in captivity.
01
Life before October 7
Sahar Kalderon was 16 and lived in Kibbutz Nir Oz. Her family’s daily life was spread across several homes: on October 7, her father Ofer was with Sahar and her younger brother Erez; their mother Hadas lived in another house in the kibbutz. Their older brother Rotem was in a different part of the community, while their eldest sister Gaya lived in Tel Aviv. N12 reported that Ofer and Hadas had separated about a year earlier. Sahar’s account of returning to the kibbutz in 2024 held both attachment and distance: she said she missed it, yet could not imagine sleeping there again.
02
October 7
Sahar’s first-person account began with Arabic shouting drawing closer to the family home. She said Ofer heard someone trying to get in, shut the door, held it, and told her to climb out of a window. Erez went first, Sahar followed, and their father came last. Ofer directed them to run without looking sideways and hide in bushes. Sahar remembered staying there for about two and a half hours. When one attacker noticed them, Erez and Ofer ran; Sahar said her legs had gone numb and she could not stand. The attacker fired toward her legs but missed. A group then took her separately. She described being carried by motorcycle and transferred to a pickup truck with about six captors, who laughed as her thoughts raced among her family members.
03
In captivity
Sahar said she spent nearly two months in a tunnel with a small group of Israelis. She remembered the air as scarce and the food and water as barely enough, and said she asked herself every day when she would leave. For a long time she knew nothing about her family. One day a guard who knew some Hebrew asked her father’s name. Sahar answered, “Ofer Kalderon”; the guard gestured toward his face, and about half an hour to an hour later she saw Ofer. She did not recognize him at first: he had a long beard and moustache, more hair, a thinner face and body, and had lost about 10 kilograms. She described embracing, crying and talking. Sahar said she felt responsible for supporting him as they tried to sustain one another’s hope.
04
Return
When Sahar was told she would be returned to Israel, she asked why her father was not going with her and when he would be released. She asked one captor to look after him, saying he was her father, and they embraced for the last time. In Sahar’s account, Ofer cried in her arms and said he was glad she was going back but feared remaining there for the rest of his life and did not want to die there. He also asked her to go to demonstrations and keep fighting for the hostages’ return. Sahar and Erez were released on November 27, 2023. Their return ended her captivity, but the parting left Ofer behind in Gaza.
05
Life after return
In the N12 interview published in July 2024, Sahar described leaving her father as a source of continuing guilt: she said she felt she had abandoned him and held herself responsible for whether he would return. That testimony came while Ofer was still captive and belongs to that moment in the family’s life. On February 1, 2025, he returned to Israel after 484 days and reunited with Sahar and Erez at Sheba Medical Center. Israel Hayom reported that the siblings greeted him with the words, “It’s over, Dad. You’re with us now,” amid laughter and tears. The family’s reunion followed the long separation Sahar had described at the time of her release.