An 85-year-old Israeli woman released by the Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday that she was beaten during her kidnapping but was later treated well during the more than two weeks she was held hostage in Gaza.
“The men hit me on the way, they didn’t break my ribs, but they hurt me a lot,” Yocheved Lifshitz said the day after his release.
“They treated us well,” she told media at a Tel Aviv hospital, explaining that a doctor visited her and the other hostages every two or three days and provided them with medicine.
“They treated us kindly and provided us with everything we needed,” she said when asked why she shook hands with a militant when she was released.
Lifshitz described his captors as “very friendly” and “very courteous” people who had organized well in advance to take hostages.
“They seemed to be prepared for this, they prepared for it for a long time, they had everything the men and women needed, including shampoo,” he told reporters.
“We ate the same food they did: pitas with cream cheese, melted cheese, cucumbers. It was an all-day meal,” Lifshitz said.
The octogenarian was released along with 79-year-old Nir Oz resident Nurit Cooper, three days after an American woman and her daughter were released.
Lifshitz was a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip that Hamas militants attacked on October 7.
Her husband, also 80 years old, is among more than 200 hostages still held in Gaza.
Source: DN
