An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas says she was initially fed nicely in captivity till situations worsened and folks grew to become hungry. She was stored in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for practically 50 days.
In one of many first interviews with a freed hostage, 78-year-old Ruti Munder instructed Israel’s Channel 13 tv that she spent the whole thing of her time along with her daughter, Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri, who celebrated his ninth birthday in captivity. Her account, broadcast Monday, provides to the trickle of details about the expertise of captives held in Gaza.
Munder was snatched Oct. 7 from her residence in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel. Her husband, Avraham, additionally 78, was taken hostage, too, and stays in Gaza. Her son was killed within the assault.
Initially, they ate “rooster with rice, all kinds of canned meals and cheese,” Munder instructed Channel 13, in an audio interview. “We had been OK.”
Kids given sweets earlier than meals shortages started
They got tea within the morning and night, and the kids got sweets. However the menu modified when “the financial scenario was not good, and folks had been hungry.”
Israel has maintained a good siege on Gaza because the warfare erupted, resulting in shortages of meals, gas and different primary objects.
Featured VideoAbbey Onn, a relative of two younger Hamas hostages who had been not too long ago freed, says understanding the kids had been being reunited with their mom introduced a second of lightness, even because the battle continues to safe the discharge of all hostages — together with the children’ father.
Munder, who was freed final Friday, returned in good bodily situation, like most different captives. However one of many launched hostages, an 84-year-old girl, has been hospitalized in life-threatening situation after not receiving correct care in captivity, docs stated. One other freed captive wanted surgical procedure.
Freed hostages have principally stored out of the general public eye since their return. Most particulars about their ordeal have come by means of relations who’ve visited them.
Munder, confirming accounts from relations of different freed captives, stated they slept on plastic chairs. She stated she coated herself with a sheet however that not all captives had one.
Featured VideoAn Israeli mom greeted her two daughters, age 8 and 15, with an extended embrace at an Israeli military base following their launch from Hamas after spending 51 days as hostages.
Boys who had been there would keep up late chatting, whereas a number of the women would cry, she stated. Some boys slept on the ground.
She stated she would get up late to assist cross the time. The room the place she was held was “suffocating,” and the captives had been prevented from opening the blinds, however she managed to crack open a window.
“It was very troublesome,” she stated.
Munder’s account emerged as Israel and Hamas agreed to increase their truce earlier within the week. The 2 sides have been exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners beneath a ceasefire deal that has paused the combating. The deal additionally contains a rise in support to Gaza.
Israel declared warfare after the Islamic militant group’s cross-border assault Oct. 7 wherein 1,200 folks had been killed and 240 others taken hostage. An Israeli offensive has left over 13,000 Palestinians useless, based on well being authorities within the Hamas-run territory.
Featured VideoThe kid hostages launched on the primary day of the truce between Israel and Hamas are being cared for on the Schneider Kids’s Medical Heart. Gilat Livni, the director of pediatrics, says the kids are in good situation and have even requested to remain on the hospital for just a few days.
Munder stated that on Oct. 7, she was placed on a car along with her household and pushed into Gaza. A militant draped over them a blanket her grandson had carried from residence, which she stated was meant to forestall them from seeing the militants round them. Whereas in captivity, she discovered from a Hamas militant who listened to the radio that her son was killed, based on the Channel 13 report.
Nonetheless, she stated, she held out hope that she can be freed.
“I used to be optimistic. I understood that if we got here right here, then we’d be launched. I understood that if we had been alive — they killed whoever they wished to in [the kibbutz] Nir Oz.”
Two Israeli TV stations, Channels 12 and 13, reported that Hamas’s prime chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, visited the hostages in a tunnel and warranted them they’d not be harmed.
“You’re most secure right here. Nothing will occur to you,” he was quoted as saying within the equivalent experiences, which didn’t reveal the supply of the account.
This spherical of releases has seen principally ladies and youngsters freed. They’ve been present process bodily and psychological exams at Israeli hospitals earlier than returning residence.
Mirit Regev, whose 21-year-old daughter, Maya, was freed Sunday, instructed Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the household has been counselled to “return the facility to her” of their interactions by at all times asking her for permission earlier than issues happen, corresponding to leaving the room.
Regev’s 18-year-old son, Itay, was launched on Wednesday.
Featured VideoMirit Regev’s two kids had been taken hostage by Hamas throughout the Oct. 7 assaults on Israel. Whereas Regev’s daughter, Maya, was launched as a part of the momentary truce in Gaza, she hopes her son, Itay, will probably be returned as nicely — and that it’s going to occur for different households of hostages.
Itai Pessach, director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Kids’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Heart within the Tel Aviv space, the place most of the launched kids have been handled, stated he felt some optimism as a result of the hostages had been bodily recovering. However he stated medical workers had heard “very troublesome and sophisticated tales from their time in Hamas captivity,” with out elaborating.
“We perceive that although they may appear bodily bettering, there is a very, very lengthy strategy to go earlier than they’re healed,” he stated.
Younger man recaptured after escape
In a separate interview, the aunt of a 25-year-old Israeli-Russian hostage who was launched Sunday from Gaza stated her nephew fled his captors and hid in Gaza for just a few days earlier than being recaptured.
“He stated he was taken by terrorists, and so they introduced him right into a constructing. However the constructing was destroyed (by Israeli bombing), and he was in a position to flee,” Yelena Magid, the aunt of Roni Krivoi, instructed Kan radio on Monday. “He was making an attempt to get to the border, however I feel as a result of he did not have the assets to know the place he was and which route to flee, he had some bother.”
He instructed her in a telephone dialog he was in a position to cover himself for round 4 days earlier than Palestinians in Gaza found him, she added.
“One factor that gave us hope from the beginning is that he is a boy who’s at all times smiling, and he can determine issues out in any scenario,” Magid stated.
Experiences of threats in opposition to little one hostages
Shoshan Haran, who was launched from Hamas captivity on Saturday evening, met with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday on the president’s workplace in Jerusalem.
“I am right here however there’s so many left behind,” Haran stated. “I nonetheless do not have the total image of what was right here, however I do know what was there, and you need to do the utmost (to get them residence).”
Eitan Yahalomi’s aunt, Devorah Cohen, instructed French media that her 12-year-old nephew was generally stored alone, however when he was with others, his captors threatened him with a gun each time the kids cried to be able to hold them quiet.
“The Hamas terrorists compelled him to observe movies of the horrors, the type that nobody desires to see, they compelled him to observe them,” Cohen stated.
No change of garments
Kin of Yaffa Adar, 85, who was launched on Friday evening, instructed Channel 12 that they didn’t bathe or change garments for the whole interval of their captivity, and solely the day earlier than they had been launched they got a brand new set of garments.
Israeli media aired video Monday of Ori Megidish, an Israeli soldier who was taken captive, then freed by the navy late final month. She stated she was completely happy and doing nicely and wished all of the captives would return residence.
“I am glad to have my life again,” she stated.
