Hostage Maxim one year after his release from Gaza: 'I will never be the same person again'
"I will never be the person I was on October 6, that is impossible," says 37-year-old Maxim Harkin. "You cannot erase memories and just forget it all. As much as I would like to."
Harkin was among the last group of hostages released from Gaza last year, as part of an agreement between Israel and Hamas. The joy in Israel was great. But for the released hostages, the biggest challenge was yet to begin.
"On the one hand, it was a huge relief to see my family again and to see that they were doing well," Harkin says. "But it was immediately clear to me that the real struggle still had to begin. Now we have to fight for the mental and physical health of ourselves and our families."
Kidnapped to Gaza
Harkin was with friends at the Nova music festival when Hamas launched the attack on the morning of October 7, 2023. "People were screaming, crying, and begging for their lives," he tells NOS in the living room at his mother's house.
Thousands of festival-goers fled, including Harkin. After a phone call from a friend, he decided to turn back to help him. His friend was shot dead and he himself was kidnapped to Gaza.
"Along the entire road I saw huge amounts of bodies everywhere." He speaks in a calm tone, without showing much emotion. "Everything and everyone was covered in blood."
Harkin spent the first months above ground in houses, but most of his captivity he stayed in tunnels underground. "I spent a year and four months without going up, without seeing the sun, without fresh air."
He appeared in two propaganda videos by Hamas. In one, he is seen in a tunnel with a bloodied bandage around his head. In the video, he says he was injured in an Israeli bombing. He also criticizes the attacks by the Israeli army and calls on the population to take action.
"It was all staged," Harkin now says. "It was not blood, but tomato sauce that they had smeared on the bandage. I would have preferred to eat it." A small smile appears on his face as he talks about it.
Trauma continues
After 738 days of captivity, Maxim Harkin was released on October 13, 2025. "I got my driver's license back," he jokes. "That means I am relatively healthy, right?" He laughs again. But then says he is still far from recovered.
He weighed about 50 kilos when he came home. He still has little appetite, sleeps poorly, and the most everyday things cause him flashbacks to his time in captivity. "That can be a certain color, a smell, a sound, really anything."
He receives help from the government and also from various private initiatives, such as 255. That organization guides former hostages and their families and looks at what they need. In this way, 255 forms a bridge between the former hostages, their families, and the government.
According to Elyah Kadish, manager and caregiver at 255, the biggest challenge is the lack of specific knowledge and expertise. "There are all kinds of insights when it comes to hostages, but we have never been confronted with an event on this scale, where such a large number of civilians were exposed to the kind of violence that took place on October 7."
According to Kadish, it is therefore a matter of waiting to see how their traumas will develop in the coming years. That poses a challenge for their treatment. Moreover, she says it is also important that the families receive sufficient attention. "The former hostages are recognized by the state as victims and receive help, but their families do not always."
For Maxim Harkin, the well-being of his family is also important. "I think they had it harder than I did. At least I knew I was still alive, they had no idea. Physically and mentally, they have also completely broken down."
Maxim himself currently finds support mainly in the reactions on the street and social media. "The warm words from people here in Israel, but also in the rest of the world, are very important. That helps me."