For more than six weeks, the conditions in which the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas were being held in Gaza were virtually unknown to the outside world. <\/p>\n
But testimony from some of the hostages released by the militant group in recent days is now beginning to emerge, giving a glimpse into their lives in captivity following Hamas\u2019 brutal attack on Israel on October 7. <\/p>\n
Those who have spoken of their experiences described living off limited supplies, as bombs rained overhead. Some knew throughout their time as hostages that family members or friends had died on the day of Hamas\u2019 assault, while others were left without clues as to their safety. <\/p>\n
Adva Adar, whose 85-year-old grandmother Yafa was among those released in the first exchange of hostages for Palestinian detainees, said her family \u201cwere asked to let (Yafa) share whatever she feels comfortable sharing, and not to ask a lot of questions so she wouldn\u2019t feel obligated (to answer) or that it wouldn\u2019t be too much for her.\u201d <\/p>\n
Adva said her grandmother had lost weight during the ordeal, and other hostages have revealed that little food was available for those in captivity. <\/p>\n
Freed hostages Keren Munder, her mother and her 9-year-old son endured days with only pita bread to eat during their captivity, her cousin Merav Mor Raviv told journalists Sunday. <\/p>\n
Munder and her mother both lost between six and eight kilograms in weight due to the lack of regular nutrition, Mor Raviv said, adding: \u201cThey were eating, but not regularly.\u201d <\/p>\n
Their diet in captivity included a lot of rice and bread, she added. <\/p>\n
Following the Israeli military\u2019s strikes and ground offensive on Gaza, the Strip has been gripped by a humanitarian crisis. Most people in the territory have been focusing on the basics: finding shelter, fleeing the fighting and getting access to food and water. <\/p>\n
Over the first three days of the truce, Hamas\u00a0released\u00a0a total of 58 hostages, primarily women and children, and Israel freed 117 Palestinian prisoners. <\/p>\n
For some of them, the conditions were manageable. Roongarun Wichanguen, the sister of released Thai hostage Vetoon Phoome, said Saturday that her brother seemed healthy after he was released by Hamas in a separate deal. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis face was very happy, and he seemed OK. He said that he was not tortured, or assaulted, and had been fed good food,\u201d she said in a video interview. \u201cHe was taken care of very well. It looks like he just stayed in a house, not the tunnel,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n
But a number of hostages have been admitted to hospital with serious injuries or medical conditions. <\/p>\n
Eighty-four-year-old Alma Avraham, who was among the Israeli hostages freed from Gaza on Sunday, has been admitted to the intensive care unit, Israel\u2019s Soroka Medical Center said. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe is in critical condition, she is (being) treated in the emergency department after significant medical neglect for the past several weeks while being held by Hamas. She is currently in unstable condition with risks to her life,\u201d Dr. Shlomi Codish, chief executive of Soroka Medical Center, said in a video statement Sunday. <\/p>\n
Another hostage, 72-year-old Adina Moshe, endured \u201chorrible\u201d conditions while she was held captive, according to her nephew. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey were fed only by rice and some beans from [a] can, which they tried to avoid [eating] in order not to have stomach-ache,\u201d he said. \u201cNot to mention that they didn\u2019t have any decent facilities like [a] shower. They didn\u2019t shower for seven weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n
Yelena Magid, an aunt of freed Russian-Israeli hostage Roni Kriboy, on Monday told Israeli radio station Kan Reshet B about her nephew\u2019s ordeal in Gaza. Kriboy is the first adult Israeli male captured on October 7 to be released by Hamas; his release was not officially part of the hostages-for-detainees deal between Israel and Hamas. <\/p>\n
Magid said in a phone call that Kriboy, 25, had told her how he was held in a building that collapsed while being bombed, and he managed to escape, he told his aunt. But after hiding for a few days, he was caught and returned to Hamas captivity. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe tried to reach the border. I think that because he didn\u2019t have the means to understand his whereabouts\u00a0and where to run away, he probably got into a bit of disorientation there in the area. He was alone for four days,\u201d Magid\u00a0told the radio station. <\/p>\n
Kriboy suffered from a head injury in the building collapse, but is now doing fine,\u00a0his aunt added. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, some hostages were aware during their captivity that loved ones been killed on October 7. <\/p>\n
Omri Almog, the brother of an Israeli hostage who was released Sunday together with two of her children, described on Monday how his sister knew that her husband and daughter had been slaughtered. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy to inform everybody that my sister Chen Goldstein-Almog and the three kids Agam, Gal and Tal are back with us and they (are) feeling good and well,\u201d Almog said in a short video released by the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey knew the whole time that Nadav and Yam were murdered in the house\u2026 they went to Gaza as hostages, kidnapped, with this idea,\u201d he said. Chen Goldstein-Almog\u2019s daughter Yam was 20 when she was killed, while her husband Nadav was 48. <\/p>\n
Another hostage, 13-year-old Hila Rotem Shoshani, was released by Hamas on Saturday, but her mother Raaya remains in detention. <\/p>\n
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said that their separation violates the terms of the deal. <\/p>\n
\u201cI urge all the parties involved to pressure Hamas to respect the deal,\u201d Yair told Blitzer. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to respect it, they need to respect it. Stop playing those games,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
That creates a complication in potentially extending the length of truce, because the agreement calls for Hamas to hand over the hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees held by Israel \u2013 so Hamas must have the hostages to hand over. <\/p>\n\n
For more than six weeks, the conditions in which the Israeli hostages captured by Hamas were being held in Gaza were virtually unknown to the outside world. But testimony from some of the hostages released by the militant group in recent days is now beginning to emerge, giving a glimpse into their lives in captivity <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}