Watch: Twin Israeli hostages return home wearing jerseys of favourite football team | World News
It was a double delight for the Berman family in Israel on Monday as both their twin children, Gali Berman and Ziv Berman, returned home after spending more than two years in Hamas captivity. The 28-year-old twin brothers, who both worked as light and sound technicians and were kidnapped from their homes in kibbutz Kfar Aza, on the border with Gaza, in southern Israel, on October 7, 2023, Hamas.
Twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman. Free at last.Photo credit: IDF pic.twitter.com/hdb6ttLFhL— Bring Them Home Now (@bringhomenow) October 13, 2025
Twins wear their favourite football team’s jersey
On Monday, the Berman twins were among the first seven of the 20 hostages released Hamas as part of the prisoner-hostage swap deal. As the Berman twins returned home after enduring 738 days of captivity in Gaza, fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv FC also joined the rest of Israel to welcome them back.
“The people of Israel live”, “Thank you for everything”🇮🇱Gali and Ziv Berman on their way to the hospital. 🎗️📸 IDF pic.twitter.com/vOs8mUI7Jh— Government Press Office 🇮🇱 (@GPOIsrael) October 13, 2025
That is because the twins are diehard fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv FC, and soon after they were handed back to the safe hands of Israeli authorities, the duo, who were wearing black when they were freed Hamas, switched to the yellow and black jersey of their favourite team.
Maccabi Tel Aviv FC fans welcome Berman twins
According to reports, Maccabi Tel Aviv FC jerseys were the first thing the Berman twins had asked for after they were freed.
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A group of Maccabi Tel Aviv FC fans also got together at the Blumfield Stadium in Tel Aviv, wearing the same jerseys and waving the team’s flag to greet them as their helicopter flew .
Gali and Ziv Berman, released from Hamas captivity today, are hardcore Maccabi Tel Aviv fans.A group of fans gathered in the Blumfield Stadium in Tel Aviv to greet them as their helicopter flew ! pic.twitter.com/GE32ZBDUKG— Hamas Atrocities (@HamasAtrocities) October 13, 2025
Longest the Berman twins have been apart
Seventeen others were also abducted from Kfar Aza, on October 7, 2023, Hamas, but the Berman twins were the only hostages from the kibbutz who remained in captivity. The family had heard from hostages who returned in a previous deal that, as of February, the brothers were alive but being held separately.
Liran Berman, their older brother, said it’s the longest the two have ever spent apart. In Kfar Aza, the twins lived in apartments across from each other. Gali is more outgoing, while Ziv is more reserved and shy with a sharp sense of humor, their brother said.
Under the ceasefire agreement that took effect last Friday, all living hostages were to be released within 72 hours. On Monday, Hamas released 20 hostages into the custody of the Red Cross, which then brought them to Israel as part of a new ceasefire deal that many hope will signal an end to two years of war in the devastated Gaza Strip.
ICRC vehicles transporting released Israeli hostages head toward the Israeli border drive a Hamas gunman in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. AP/PTI(AP10_13_2025_000166A)
Under the agreement, all living hostages as well as the bodies of the deceased were to be released. Hamas on Monday said will hand over the bodies of four hostages. Israel is set to release around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange of the hostages.
