First Hamas hostage freed calls Trump’s cease-fire deal ‘happiest day of my life’

The American woman who became the first hostage to be sprung from Hamas hell said it was the “happiest day of my life” when she heard of President Trump’s landmark cease-fire deal that will free the remaining hostages.

But “survivor’s guilt” kept Judith Raanan, an Israeli native and American citizen who lives outside Chicago, from moving forward — and she fears how the other captives will fare after their years-long ordeal.

“For me, Oct. 7 is a day that stands still until all the hostages are released and this war is over,” the 61-year-old former life coach and counselor exclusively told The Post this week. “This is the moment we’ve been waiting and praying for.”

Raanan was visiting the home of her 88-year-old mother in Kibbutz Nahal Oz along the Gaza border with her then-teenage daughter Natalie when they were abducted by Hamas in the bloody terror attack that left 1,200 civilians dead and hundreds kidnapped. They lost several family members during the massacre at nearby Kibbutz Be’eri.

Just two weeks in captivity made Raanan suicidal, she said — admitting she couldn’t imagine what the remaining hostages must be feeling.

“It’s excruciating to think about, it’s beyond comprehension and unbearable,” said Raanan, a claustrophobe who was held in homes in Gaza, about the those trapped hundreds of feet underground in Hamas’ notorious terror tunnels. 

“You lose muscle mass, your sanity, your sense of self, the ability to say ‘no’ or react,” she said.

“You can’t get up, you can’t eat, you can’t get to the toilet,” she recalled, adding she was surveilled “24/7” by armed men.

Life felt like a casino “with no sense of time,” she said. “It’s like Russian roulette from one moment to the next.

“You don’t know if you’re going to be alive or dead any minute. All you try to do is survive the moment. You do the best you can.”

With her fate out of her hands, and her daughter “terrified,” Raanan turned to her faith.

“I made up my mind — if I die, I want to die as a good person,” she said, noting how she kept up her “modesty and traditions,” like making a blessing over her piece of bread.  

She also prayed in Hebrew, reciting Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” 

Though it could have spelled doom, the brave woman of faith defiantly “refused to bow” to her menacing captors. 

“I’m not going to be their slave and I’m going to keep my honor and dignity,” she recalled of her attitude — which she believed kept her alive.

Raanan tried to find gratitude where she could.

“You can be thankful for salt water, instead of no water at all,” she said. “I was thankful for every merciful moment.”

She plans on returning to Israel for the homecoming of the remaining hostages, and is cautiously optimistic.

“I’m factual — and I’m waiting to see the facts. I’m really just hoping to see them,” she said.

“I can hardly breathe. All I want is for them to come home safely, to hug their family again,” Raanan told The Post from her home in Chicago this week.

Of the 48 remaining hostages, 20 are believed to be still alive.

Raanan and her daughter were the only Americans who lived in the United States taken hostage.

Life will never look the same as it did before rocket fire hit their guest house that October morning and nine armed men stormed in.

“My whole life basically stopped. I wanted to go back to business as usual,” she said.

“But I was so sad inside — I felt guilty that I was alive, I felt guilty when I eat or enjoy anything.

“I didn’t allow myself to enjoy anything for a very long time — until I almost collapsed,” she said, fearing a heart attack.

She credited God with saving the lives of her and her daughter and now shares their story with young people around the country.

As the hostage release nears, she’s hoping for real and lasting peace.

“Israel — and the world — deserves peace of mind,” she said.