Israel delays cabinet vote to approve deal, claims Hamas creating ‘last-minute crisis’

If all goes as planned and the hostages are released from Gaza, one of their first stops in Israel will be a hospital, according to the Israeli Health Ministry’s protocols and guidelines.

“The Israeli health system awaits the return of those abducted from captivity,” the guidelines say.

The steps to help the former Hamas prisoners get back on their feet got a test run in November 2023 when the first groups of hostages were released and an operation called “Heaven’s Door” was launched to aid them.

The “returnees” will receive an “immediate assessment and treatment in a hospital and, after release, continued treatment and long-term monitoring of all health, medical, mental and social aspects.”

The former hostages will be examined in an area cordoned off from the rest of the hospital and will be assigned a private room. There, they will be able to visit with family and, among other things, relearn how to eat normally to avoid what’s known as “refeeding syndrome.”

That is a life-threatening condition that happens when a malnourished person starts eating regularly again.

Visitors will be kept to a minimum and “the families of the returnees and their guests must be instructed that taking photographs in the compound and uploading materials to social media may harm the returnee,” the guidelines state.

In addition to the usual battery of tests, the ministry recommends “that all girls/women of childbearing age” be given a pregnancy test.

The returnees will be allowed to stay at the hospital for as long as necessary and there will be follow-up visits from social workers and others.

“The professional recommendation is to maintain the continuity of treatment and psychological support by the hospital person with whom the contact was established, and therefore this should be allowed to the patient and his family even after release,” the guidelines state.

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