Thiessen reported from Anchorage.

Minutes later, a bullet hit just centimeters from her head. She played dead for hours before making her way back to the road. Eventually, Israeli security forces brought her to a police station. As the hours passed and her husband didn’t make contact, she grew increasingly worried. He was pronounced dead five days later.Shalev said she and her four children, ages 12 to 23, have turned to Judaism for comfort. But she has trouble sleeping at night and struggles to run her household alone.

“As the days go by, one day and another day and another day, it’s actually getting worse. It doesn’t get better,” Shalev said. “Missing him gets stronger because you understand more and more that he’s not coming back. He’s really not coming back.”Liat Atzili talks about the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, on Kibbutz Nir Oz during an interview at her temporary home in Kiryat Gat, Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. Atzili was kidnapped and held hostage for 54 days in Gaza. Her husband, Aviv, was killed and his body was taken to Gaza. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)Liat Atzili talks about the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, on Kibbutz Nir Oz during an interview at her temporary home in Kiryat Gat, Israel, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. Atzili was kidnapped and held hostage for 54 days in Gaza. Her husband, Aviv, was killed and his body was taken to Gaza. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

After 54 days in captivity in Gaza, Liat Atzili was determined to return to her work as a high school history and civics teacher to wrest back control of her identity.“I feel most comfortable and most at ease, and it’s the thing that comes the most naturally for me to be in a classroom,” she said. “It’s a real connection to what I used to be like and what my life was before.”

She counts herself lucky to have been held in an apartment in conditions much better than the hostages kept in

Still, during her captivity, Atzili had no idea whether her family had survived.Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)People walk through the town near the coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

People walk through the town near the coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)Two women stand together in the town near the coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)