War between Israel and Hamas: Israel will soon end 'intensive' phase of war, says Defense Minister
Hila Rotem Shoshani invited her friend Emily Hand for a sleepover in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel. The girls, then aged 12 and 8, woke early the next morning, October 7, to the sound of thunderous booms – the start of the deadliest attack in their country's history.
For about six hours, Hila and Emily hid in the home's safe room with Hila's mother, Raaya Rotem, 54, as Hamas attackers overran the kibbutz. Then armed gunmen burst in with guns and knives and took the three into a landscape of horror, past dead bodies and burning buildings, to a car. One of the attackers saw Hila holding a stuffed animal. He grabbed it and threw it aside.
“I had it in my hand the whole time. I didn't notice it,” Hila said in an interview in New York on Friday, before speaking at a rally in support of the remaining hostages. “If you're afraid, you don't notice it.”
Hila was one of more than thirty children kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 and held until the end of November, when she, along with dozens of adults, were released during a brief ceasefire. Hila, now 13, is the youngest of the returned hostages to speak out about the harsh conditions in which they were held, and tried to highlight the plight of the more than 100 hostages remaining in Gaza.
The terrifying drive to Gaza, surrounded by Hamas terrorists, was the first time, Hila said, that she fully realized how “really close” the area was to the community in which she had grown up.
She said she, her mother and Emily were taken to a house in Gaza, where they were placed in a dark room with a few other hostages. Initially, an armed guard remained in the room, but eventually moved to the living room.
“They understood we weren't going to run away,” Hila said. “It's dangerous outside too – why should we run?”
They were warned not to try to escape, Hila said, and told that “if we go outside 'the people there don't like you, so you'll be killed anyway.'”
Their captors gave them little food – on some days half a pita bread and a little halva, on other days canned beans – and very little water, often spring water that was so unpalatable, Hila said, that she had to force herself to drink.
Sometimes the captors ate while the prisoners did not. She said: “There were days when there was just no food, and they kept it for themselves.”
Every now and then, Hila said, they would hear the voices of other children and wonder if they were somewhere else in the house. They had to ask permission to use the bathroom, and Hila learned the Arabic word for it: hamam.
Once, an explosion nearby broke the window of their room, Hila said, but they escaped injury.
A few times, she said, they woke up in the middle of the night and hurried through the darkness.
“They told us at first, 'You're going to a safer place,'” Hila said. “But we didn't know if we were going to be killed.”
The girls had to remain silent. Emily was turning nine and Hila's own birthday was approaching. They tried to occupy themselves with drawing or games.
“We played cards, but how many cards can you play, all day, every hour?” Hila said.
Freedom came suddenly, she said.
About a month and a half into their captivity, the kidnappers suddenly separated the girls from Hila's mother.
“My mother started to worry that something was wrong, that they weren't taking her,” Hila said, adding, “and then they just came for us, and she stayed.”
The girls were subsequently released and sent back to Israel. The separation of mother and child violated the terms of the exchange agreement and sparked outrage in Israel. Ultimately, Raaya was released a few days laterjust after Hila's 13th birthday.