kept in the dark. Forced to sit in silence. They gave only meager food. These and more chilling revelations are beginning to show how hostages survive in Hamas captivity.
During Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, approximately 240 people, ranging from infants to endogens, were taken hostage. Dozens have been freed, but many remain missing, considered fighters by the Palestinian Authority and other groups in Gaza. The sides resume battle.
The Red Cross and other humanitarian groups were not allowed to visit the hostages. Therefore, relatives and the wider watching world will have to wait for the testimony of the freedmen to know what will happen to their loved ones still held in Gaza: if they have seen, if they are alive or dead.
The details below are compiled from comments given by freed hostages to their families, carers and sometimes to the press.
According to the terms of the agreement between Israel and Hamas, most of those released were women, children and foreign workers. As of Friday, an elderly Israeli man – who also holds Russian citizenship – had been released and no members of the Israeli army. The hostages are believed to be in the hands of various groups and spread across locations. It is already apparent that not all hostages are treated the same; Each new person’s story of recovery adds to the understanding.
One hostage, Adina Moshe, was dragged from a safe room in her home in Israel, taken to Gaza and forced into a tunnel five stories underground, her son-in-law Eyal Nouri said.
“They took her into the tunnels … she walked with bare feet in the mud of the tunnels,” she told CNN in the first hours of her captivity. “It was very difficult to breathe. They marched [for] Hours in the Mines.”
Moshe said his aunt lived in an underground room with the lights off for only two hours a day. The darkness was real and figurative, Nouri said. Without any information, their other senses and imaginations became curious.
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