Hostages freed from Gaza tell of violence, hunger and fear

Some hostages were held in sweltering tunnels deep beneath Gaza, while others were confined to cramped quarters with strangers or locked in isolation. There were children forced to appear in hostage videos, and others forced to watch gruesome footage of the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. They bore physical and psychological wounds.

Now that some of the hostages captured that day in the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel have been released, they have passed on these and other stories of their captivity to relatives. Although their individual experiences differ in some details, their accounts share features that corroborate each other and suggest that Hamas and its allies intended to take hostages.

The New York Times interviewed the relatives of ten released hostages, who spoke on behalf of their relatives to pass on sensitive information.

The relatives who spoke to The Times described how the freed hostages, including many children, were not given enough food in Gaza. Many said they had been receiving just one piece of bread a day for weeks. Others were given small portions of rice or pieces of cheese. The Red Cross said access to the hostages was denied.

Many of the hostages returned to Israel over the past week – part of a ceasefire between Israel and the armed group Hamas to trade hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees – have returned home malnourished, infested with lice, sick, injured and deeply traumatized.

An aunt of Avigail Idan, a US-Israeli citizen who was taken hostage after her parents were brutally murdered and who turned four just days before her release, said her niece shared one piece of pita bread a day with four other prisoners and that she did too. is not allowed to shower or bathe during her 50 days in captivity.

According to Aunt Tal Idan, the five hostages were held in above-ground apartments, changing locations at least once. Every day they received a piece of pita bread with za’atar, a spice mix from the Middle East, to share.

While Avigail was in captivity, her hair was shaved because she had developed a significant case of lice, Ms Idan said. “She was underneath it. It took quite a bit of effort to get her off some of it the first night.”

The surprise of the October 7 terrorist attack and the kidnapping of so many people at once has been described as a national trauma for Israel, but it is also a trauma carried by individuals.

According to Israeli authorities, more than 1,200 people were killed in the attack and 240 people were taken hostage. Israel has since bombed Gaza, killing more than 13,000 people in the enclave since the start of the war, Gaza’s Health Ministry estimates.

For the hostages it was a series of horrors: first the attack, then the kidnapping, then the captivity itself.

Nurit Cooper, 79, was held in the warren of tunnels under Gaza with four elderly Israelis in the early days of the war. According to Rotem Cooper, her son, they were kept in a small room with little light or ventilation.

Ms Cooper’s shoulder was broken “as part of the brutality of the kidnapping”, Mr Cooper said. The group of hostages, all in their 70s and 80s, he added, had difficulty walking through the dark, sandy tunnels.

Ms. Cooper and another hostage, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, were released last month, but their husbands remain imprisoned in Gaza. The kidnappers took his glasses and deprived him of necessary medicine, his son said.

Many of the relatives interviewed, especially those of children whose parents or siblings remain in captivity, were reluctant to share the most incriminating details of their captivity for fear that the militants would retaliate against the hostages still held. were always in their custody.

Others warned that they were reluctant to ask for too much too soon, or to share the most disturbing details publicly in an effort to protect their relatives’ privacy and avoid being re-traumatized.

However, an aunt of Eitan Yahalomi, a 12-year-old boy who was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz and returned to his family on Monday, told a French television channel that the boy had “experienced horrors” in Gaza.

The aunt, Devorah Cohen, said that when Eitan arrived in Gaza, he was attacked by a crowd.

“When he arrived in Gaza, civilians beat him,” she told BFM TV, adding that the boy and other abducted children were forced to watch videos of the atrocities committed on October 7. When he and others cried, they said, their captors threatened to shoot them.

Efrat Avsker, another of Eitan’s aunts, told The Times that the boy “had a long, long recovery, a long way to go.”

“But he is in good hands,” she added.

Ohad Yahalomi, Eitan’s father, was shot in the leg and arm while trying to protect his family. He was kidnapped separately. Ms Avsker said the family was very relieved that Eitan was home, but were very concerned for Mr Yahalomi’s safety.

“We all have to do everything we can, everything we can to get him and the others out,” she said.

By Thursday, 102 hostages had been released from Gaza, most of them women and children, ranging in age from 4 to 85. As part of the exchange, 210 Palestinians had been released from Israeli prisons, all of them women and teenagers.

On Wednesday, Hamas said that the youngest of the hostages captured on October 7, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, had died along with other members of his family while in captivity. The Israeli military said it was assessing the veracity of Hamas’ statement, while a senior leader said the claims could be “psychological warfare.”

Kidnapping survivors say the road ahead could be a long one for those freed. But in the short term, some may feel uncomplicated relief. “The first emotions after her rescue are joy and relief,” says Elizabeth Smart, a child safety activist who was kidnapped from her bedroom in Salt Lake City in 2002 at the age of 14 and held captive for nine months, during which time she was raped. “It’s a miracle, and it’s an answer to prayer.”

For Noam and Alma Or, teenage siblings released this week, the joy of their release was tempered by news of the death of a parent.

Shortly after hugging the newly released teens, family members had to tell them that their mother had been murdered and their father was still missing.

“I know it was very difficult,” their uncle Ahal Besorai said in an interview, adding that the children asked him not to reveal too many details about their conditions in Gaza other than to say it was “very unpleasant.”

The siblings, he said, survived their captivity largely because they had each other.

“They said they actually supported each other, so if one of them was having a bad day or a bad day, the other would support him or her,” he said. “It created a kind of bond.”

Families who were able to stay together, like the Or siblings, said they found comfort in being together.

Three generations of the Munder family – Ruth, 78, Keren, 54, and her son Ohad, 9, – were held in a room in Gaza along with about ten other hostages. The group slept on chairs and needed permission from their captors to use a toilet, which could sometimes take more than an hour, said Eyal Mor, a relative of the Munders.

It was in that room, Mr. Mor said, that the family learned that Ruth’s son, Keren’s brother, had died. They listened to a report on Israeli radio, which they could hear occasionally.

Since the family’s release, Ohad has been reluctant to open up about his Oct. 7 kidnapping, Mr. Mor said.

“You know, you can never know what the long-term impact of this trauma is going to be,” Mr. Mor said.

In these early days, the Israelis try, however possible, to strengthen the spirit of the returning hostages.

Ohad’s doctors made an exception to visitation rules and allowed him to invite his eight closest friends to visit Tel Aviv hospital, where he was monitored.

An avid football fan and player, Eitan met players from Hapoel Be’er Sheva, his favorite team.

He was very happy with the meeting, said his aunt, Mrs. Avsker. But mostly he enjoys the simple pleasures.

“Eitan is happy to be home,” she said. “Happy to be cuddled and loved by his mother and the whole family – and pretty much the whole country.”

Reporting was contributed by Nadav Gavrielov, Roni Rabin, Talya Minsberg And Adam Sella.