Freed Israeli hostages told top Israeli officials on Tuesday that they feared being killed by Israeli airstrikes while they were held by Hamas militants in Gaza. They also recounted brutality in Hamas’ captivity, including being beaten, humiliated, malnourished and kept under poor medical conditions.
Details from the meeting were reported in Israeli news outlets, including were released ― including 23 Thai nationals and one Filipino ― as were more than 200 Palestinians who’d been held as Israeli prisoners, the majority of whom had not been convicted of a crime; thousands of Palestinians are held without charges in Israeli detention, and many of those released reported being abused in Israeli custody. Israeli authorities believe about 15 people taken hostage are dead, The Times of Israel noted.
One former hostage who attended the meeting recalled the harsh conditions for captives in Gaza, Haaretz reported.
“They touch girls, and everyone knows it. I won’t recount details, but we had a procedure that no one moves without someone guarding them,” the woman said. “Medications ran out, and they gave us the wrong drugs.”
Another former hostage, a nurse named Nili Margalit, recalled severe conditions. “We were in tunnels under impossible conditions: underground, lacking oxygen, in darkness, with basic food like rice or pita bread twice a day,” Margalit wrote in a letter that was read at the meeting Tuesday, Haaretz reported.
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Referring to elderly captives with whom she was kept, Margalit added: “These people live on borrowed time. There’s a shortage of medicines. I did my best to provide the medications they needed. It was very partial. The medications ran out. They can barely function. They lie on mattresses all day long. I don’t know how they manage since I left.”
Another former hostage said their captors “told us ‘There is no Israel.’ We believed them. They made us believe there is no Israel anymore.”
“I left the meeting hoping the cabinet means what it says,” Bashir Alziadana, whose family members include both recently released hostages and those still held captive in Gaza, told Haaretz. “We asked if returning the captives is the primary goal now, and I didn’t leave with a clear answer.”
“It’s very ironic that my family in the Gaza Strip is afraid they’ll die from IDF missiles, and my family in the unrecognized Bedouin village is afraid they’ll die from Hamas missiles because they have no protection,” Alziadana added, referring to Israel’s Bedouin population.
“It was very difficult to hear from the hostages’ descriptions of what they were, and are, enduring,” one unnamed representative of a family affected by the hostage crisis told Haaretz.
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“It’s not only the abuse, suffering, and torment they undergo, but also that the IDF airstrikes jeopardize their lives. Together with Netanyahu’s statement that there’s no proposal on the table to return everyone, it’s impossible. Hamas is the one orchestrating this event.”
