Parents of freed Hamas hostages give details of ordeal

Mother and father of 4 younger feminine Israeli hostages free of Hamas captivity in Gaza have advised the BBC about how their daughters have been abused, together with being starved, intimidated and threatened by armed males, and compelled to cook dinner and clear.

They recounted how the hostages have been held in underground tunnels and buildings, witnessed bodily abuse and have been made to take part in Hamas propaganda movies, together with, in a single case, by faking her personal dying.

They stated the ladies discovered energy via sharing tales, drawing and holding a diary.

Not one of the girls have given interviews to the media since their launch, and their dad and mom say the complete particulars of what they endured are nonetheless rising. There are additionally issues they can not discuss on account of fears it may put the hostages nonetheless in Gaza in danger.

Three of the 4 girls whose dad and mom spoke to the BBC have been feminine troopers kidnapped by Hamas from the Nahal Ozarmy base close to Gaza on 7 October 2023.

The hostages’ entry to meals and their therapy by male guards diverse over the 15 months they have been held, their dad and mom stated. They have been moved between areas, not often seeing daylight.

“It was very completely different between the locations that she went – it may very well be an excellent tunnel, it may very well be a really dangerous tunnel. It may very well be an excellent home or a foul home,” stated the daddy of Agam Berger, 20, a soldier who had been at Nahal Oz.

A number of the locations had good meals, some had “very dangerous meals… they simply tried to outlive,” Shlomi Berger stated.

“They [and their captors] needed to run away from one place to a different as a result of they’re in a struggle zone there. It was very harmful to be there,” stated Orly Gilboa, whose daughter Daniella was additionally kidnapped from the bottom.

When Daniella watched the release of three male hostages last week – who got here out skinny and emaciated – she advised her mom: “If I had been launched two months in the past I might have most likely seemed like them.”

“She received thinner, she misplaced a number of her weight via the captivity. However within the final two months they got a number of meals to achieve weight,” Ms Gilboa says.

Different dad and mom have additionally reported important weight reduction. Meirav Leshem Gonen’s daughter was taken by Hamas from the Nova music pageant.

Romi, 24, was launched within the first week of the ceasefire in January – she had misplaced “20% of her physique weight”, says her mom.

Ms Gilboa says the toughest factor she endured was seeing a video that steered her daughter had been killed. Her captors poured powder on her so she seemed like she was lined in plaster, as if she was killed in an Israeli army strike.

“I believe everybody who noticed it believed it, however I simply saved telling myself that it may’t be,” she advised the BBC.

The struggle was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented assault on Israel on 7 October 2023, when gunmen killed about 1,200 individuals and took one other 251 hostage.

Greater than 48,230 individuals have been killed in Gaza since, based on the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry. About two-thirds of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or broken, estimates the UN.

Up to now, 16 Israeli and 5 Thai hostages have been exchanged for greater than 600 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel below the ceasefire deal that started on 19 January.

Mr Berger says his daughter, Agam, was threatened by her captors and witnessed bodily abuse whereas in captivity.

“Generally they tortured different feminine hostages in entrance of her eyes,” he says, referring particularly to an assault on Amit Soussana, a former hostage who was launched in November 2023.

Mr Berger says his daughter advised him how they have been continuously watched over by armed males, “taking part in on a regular basis with their weapons and their hand grenades”.

He says the male captors handled the ladies with “massive disrespect”, together with forcing them to wash and put together meals.

“That was actually bothering her. She’s a woman that if she has one thing to say, she’ll say it. She’s not shy. And typically she advised them what she was desirous about them and their behaviour,” he says.

He provides that in a small act of resistance, Agam had refused to carry out any jobs on the Sabbath, the Jewish day of relaxation. The boys detaining her accepted this.

They have been additionally not allowed to talk loudly.

“When Agam got here [back to Israel] she wished to talk on a regular basis… After a day, she had no voice as a result of she’d spoken a lot,” Mr Berger says.

Yoni Levy, whose daughter Naama, 20, was additionally taken from the military base, says she was typically held in areas the place there was a TV or radio taking part in.

As soon as, Naama noticed her father speaking on TV. “It gave her a number of hope and optimism… that no one would neglect her, and we’ll do no matter is required to take her out of this hell.”

He says for Naama, the Hamas assault on the military base was “was rather more traumatic than the captivity itself”.

“It might change however at this stage we predict that that is probably the most tragic day that she’s talked about,” Mr Levy says.

Footage of Naama that day exhibits her and different feminine troopers in bloodstained clothes surrounded by armed males in a room on the base earlier than being pressured right into a automobile and brought to Gaza.

The three feminine troopers whose dad and mom spoke to the BBC are amongst 5 from an all-women unarmed army unit at Nahal Ozfreed within the first spherical of the ceasefire.

Members of the unit, recognized in Hebrew as Tatzpitaniyot, are tasked with observing the Gaza border and in search of indicators of something suspicious. Survivors and family of a few of these killed that day say that they’d been warning for months that Hamas had been getting ready for an assault.

A number of days earlier than the 7 October assault, Daniella had been at residence on a break from service. She had advised her mom then: “Mummy, after I return to the military, there’s going to be a struggle.”

“I did not assume it was going to be such a struggle and naturally that my daughter could be taken hostage,” Ms Gilboa says.

Ms Gilboa and the households of the 2 different observers who spoke to the BBC say they’re becoming a member of requires an inquiry into what occurred.

They are saying their daughters stay involved concerning the circumstances of these nonetheless in Gaza and have known as for the ceasefire to proceed.

In the meantime, Ms Leshem Gonen says she remains to be studying what occurred to her daughter Romi.

She was shot on the Nova music pageant and her mom says she was not correctly handled, leaving her with “an open wound the place she may see the bone”.

“That is one thing we will know and that she speaks about. The opposite issues, I believe it would take time.”

Ms Leshem Gonen says Romi described her launch within the first week of the truce as “intimidating” and “horrifying”. She was surrounded by gunmen and crowds. However the second of their reunion was “so highly effective”.

The dad and mom additionally described how their daughters had discovered methods to get via every day in captivity – via drawing, making notes or sharing tales with one another.

“They wrote as a lot as they may, day-after-day – what was taking place, the place have been they shifting, who have been the guards and issues like that,” says Mr Berger.

Whereas in captivity, the younger girls had dreamt concerning the issues they wished to do once they received residence: getting a haircut and consuming sushi.

Daniella had drawn a butterfly with the phrase “freedom” whereas in captivity – she now has that tattooed on her arm.

They’re adapting to life again in Israel, and their households say they’re taking the restoration step-by-step.

The second of reunion along with his daughter Naama remains to be a blur, says Mr Levy, however he remembers the emotion.

“The sensation was that… I’ll maintain you now, and every part’s going to be OK. Daddy’s right here. That is all. After which every part was quiet.”

Further reporting by Naomi Scherbel-Ball