Israeli hostages released by Hamas began describing what they suffered during their captivity by the Islamist movement, under difficult conditions that worsened over nearly two months.
In one of the first interviews with a released hostage, Ruti Munder, 78, told Israeli television channel Channel 13 on Monday that she spent all her time with her daughter Keren and grandson Ohad Munder-Zichri, who was celebrating his ninth birthday in captivity.
The family was abducted on October 7 from their home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel, and placed in a vehicle and taken to Gaza along with her husband, Avraham, 78, who has not yet been released.
While he was in captivity, Munder heard on the radio from a Hamas militant that her son had been killed in the attack, according to a Channel 13 report. Still, she remained hopeful that she would be released.
Two Israeli television stations reported that Hamas’s top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, visited the hostages in a tunnel and assured them they would not be harmed.
Initial, The hostages ate “chicken and rice, all kinds of canned food and cheese,” he revealed, but soon the basics ran out.
Munder confirmed reports from relatives of other released prisoners, revealing that they slept on plastic chairs. She covered herself with a sheet, but not all prisoners had one and some boys slept on the floor.
The atmosphere in the room where she was trapped was “suffocating” until she managed to open a window.
Munder, who was released on Friday, returned in good physical condition, as did most of the released prisoners, who have remained out of the public since their return.
In this release roundmainly women and children were released, who underwent physical and psychological tests in Israeli hospitals before returning home.
Itai Pessach, director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Center, where many of the released children were treated, expressed some optimism that the hostages were recovering physically. But he said the medical team had heard “very difficult and complex stories about the time they spent in captivity in Hamas,” without going into details.
“We understand that although they appear to be improving physically, there is still a long way to go before they are healed,” he said.
The French Israelites Erez and Sahar Kalderon, ages 12 and 16, and Eitan Yahalomi, 12, arrived in Israel on Monday evening.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on RTL radio that the three released French minors appeared to be in good physical health, citing the “psychological shock” of their long detention.
“Eitan experienced some horrors there,” Deborah Cohen, the minor’s aunt, told BFMTV. “When he arrived in Gaza, the civilians beat him,” even though he was “a twelve-year-old child,” he complained, based on the exchange of impressions with his cousin’s mother.
“Hamas forced him to watch” the abuses committed and filmed by its fighters on October 7. “Every time a child cried, they threatened him with a gun to shut him up,” he said.
“I wanted to hope that he (Eitan) would be treated well. Apparently not. They are monsters,” Cohen said.
“Yesterday we were so happy (about his release). But now that I know this, I’m worried. His father is still there,” he admitted.
“How can we feel good after an experience like this? He still has a long way to go,” he said, adding that he is a quiet child and “it will take some time for his emotions to come to the surface.”
Mirit Regev, whose 21-year-old daughter Maya was released on Sunday, told Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the family was advised to “give her the power back” in their interactions, always asking her permission first, such as leaving the room. . Regev’s son Itai, 18, is still being held by Hamas.
In a separate interview, the aunt of a 25-year-old Israeli-Russian hostage who was also released on Sunday said her cousin had fled his captors and hid in Gaza for a few days before being recaptured.
“He said he was taken by terrorists and they took him to a building. But the building was destroyed (by Israeli bombing) and he managed to escape,” Yelena Magid, Roni Krivoi’s aunt, told Kan radio on Monday.
In a telephone conversation, his cousin told him that he was able to hide for about four days before he was discovered.
“One thing that gave us hope from the beginning is that he is a man who always smiles and can solve any situation,” Magid said.
These hostages were among approximately 240 people captured in Israel during the October 7 attacks. Fifty of them have been released so far under a ceasefire deal that ended fighting in exchange for about 150 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The reports come as Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas agreed to extend the ceasefire. The agreement also includes an increase in humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Israel declared war after the Islamic militant group’s cross-border attack on October 7, which killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage. The Israeli offensive caused the deaths of more than 13,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Hamas-controlled territory.
Source: DN
