By Luis de Jesus
Nov 26, 2023, 11:51 PM EST
Relatives of former Hamas hostages, who have been released in small groups since last Friday, began to reveal details of the precarious conditions in which their loved ones were kept during the weeks in which the terrorist group held them hostage.
The news center The Associated Press He pointed out the case of Merav Raviv, who had three relatives kidnapped by Hamas. He said that his relatives, who were released on the first day of the humanitarian pause, were fed irregularly and that they were mainly fed rice and bread.
His cousin Keren and his aunt Ruth Munder lost about 7 kilograms each in the almost two months.
He added that the former hostages slept in rows of chairs together in a room and sometimes had to wait hours to go to the bathroom.
Likewise, Adva Adar assured that her 85-year-old grandmother also lost weight. “She counted the days of her captivity. She said, ‘I know I’ve been there for 50 days,’ she said.
Adva said members of Yaffa Adar’s family survived the Hamas attacks, but the elderly woman was disappointed to discover that her house was razed to the ground by the militants.
“For an 85-year-old woman, you usually have the house where you raised your children, your memories, your photo albums, your clothes. She has nothing and in her old age she needs to start over. It is difficult for her,” Adar noted about her grandmother.
Kidnapped in tunnels beneath Gaza
Yocheved Lipschitz, 85, the news agency noted, was held in the tunnels that extend beneath the Gaza Strip, “like a spider web.” And she assured that her captors told them that they are people who believe in the Koran and promised them that they would not harm them.
Lifshitz said the Palestinians treated them well and offered them medical care, including medicine. Furthermore, he stated that the militiamen kept the facilities clean and gave them one meal a day of cheese, cucumber and bread. The captors, he said, ate the same thing.
Eyal Nouri, nephew of a 72-year-old woman, indicated that his aunt must adapt to sunlight again because she was always in the dark. “She walked with her eyes down because she was in a tunnel. “She was not used to daylight and, during her captivity, she was disconnected from the entire outside world,” she expressed.
“These seven horrible weeks are over,” added Nouri, who indicated that the woman’s husband was killed by the militiamen and that the rest of the family managed to survive.
Likewise, AP reports the statements of Yair Rotem, whose 12-year-old niece got used to whispering because the terrorists always demanded that the hostages stay silent. “I keep telling her that now she can speak up,” she said.
Keep reading:
• Hamas murdered her parents in front of her: the story of Abigail, the freed American girl
• Kamala Harris assures that her top priority is the American citizens kidnapped by Hamas
• Joe Biden said Hamas freed a 4-year-old American girl: “What she endured is unthinkable”