Israel-Hamas War: Hostages released include Austin man's family

AUSTIN, Texas - For weeks, Chen Dori-Roberts has been in the dark not knowing the state of his family.

Dori Roberts' family was taken hostage on October 7th and held captive in Gaza. He says for the past 50 days he's been worried if his family members were still alive.

On Friday, November 24, 2023, Dori-Roberts was finally able to hear some positive news.

"We will celebrate today, and we will hug and received our former hostages back to our families and our communities and our hearts. And we're going to get up tomorrow. And I'm going to keep fighting for till every one of the hostages is released," says Dori-Roberts.

Dori- Roberts says the hostages will be able to reunite with their families in Israel after they are released from the hospital. He describes the journey his family went through since they’ve been released.

"The way it went was Red Cross got them from the Hamas over to through Egypt. Back into Israel. Then a medical team, an assessment team, meet them there, secure them going to air force base, another examination and then from there to hospitals," says Dori-Roberts.

Dori-Roberts’ cousin and two young children were among the few hostages who were released on Friday under a four-day-cease-fire deal.

President Biden spoke at the White House on Friday and called the release of hostages "only a start, but so far it's gone well."

"We expect more hostages be released tomorrow and more the day after and more the day after that. Over the next few days, we expect that dozens of hostages will be returned to their families," says President Biden.

Last week Dori-Roberts along with other victims’ families spoke at the Dell Jewish Community Center, all sharing a similar message: bring the hostages home.

"We have to keep believe that there is hope. We have to believe that we can make a change and we can make. Our voices heard and that that pressure will actually help to bring them back home," says Dori-Roberts.