On this day: Colombian rebels free Israeli hostages

In September 2003 Beni Daniel, Ortaz Ohayon, Ido Yosef Guy and Erez Altawil – four Israelis in their twenties – were kidnapped while trekking near ancient Indian ruins at Ciudad Perdida.

They were taken hostage by members of Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN), a leftist rebel organisation which had been waging a war against the government of the south American country since the 1960s.

Three others, kidnapped at the same time, had already escaped. But the Israelis, along with 32-year-old Briton Mark Henderson, were not released for another 102.

Their rescue came with the help of negotiators from Colombia’s Catholic Church. They were handed over at a secret spot in the Sierra Nevada mountains, then travelled the 950 miles north to Bogota to fly back home.