TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli hostage freed by Hamas stated in an interview that she was initially fed nicely in captivity till circumstances worsened and folks turned hungry. She was stored in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for almost 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 everything 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 house 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.”
They got tea within the morning and night, and the kids got sweets. However the menu modified when “the financial state of affairs was not good, and folks had been hungry.”
Israel has maintained a good siege on Gaza because the struggle erupted, resulting in shortages of meals, gas and different fundamental objects.
Munder, who was freed Friday, returned in good bodily situation, like most different captives. However one of many launched hostages, an 84-year-old lady, 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 way of family members who’ve visited them.
Munder, confirming accounts from family members 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.
Boys who had been there would keep up late chatting, whereas a number of the ladies 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. The 2 sides have been exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners below a cease-fire deal that has paused the preventing. The deal additionally consists of a rise in assist to Gaza.
Israel declared struggle after the Islamic militant group’s cross-border assault Oct. 7 through which 1,200 individuals had been killed and 240 others taken hostage. An Israeli offensive has left over 13,000 Palestinians lifeless, in line with well being authorities within the Hamas-run territory.
Munder stated that on Oct. 7, she was placed on a automobile along with her household and pushed into Gaza. A militant draped over them a blanket her grandson had carried from house, 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, in line with 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 might be launched. I understood that if we had been alive — they killed whoever they needed to in Nir Oz.”
Two Israeli TV stations, Channels 12 and 13, reported that Hamas’ high chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, visited the hostages in a tunnel and guaranteed them they’d not be harmed.
“You’re most secure right here. Nothing will occur to you,” he was quoted as saying within the similar reviews, which didn’t reveal the supply of the account.
This spherical of releases has seen principally girls and kids freed. They’ve been present process bodily and psychological checks at Israeli hospitals earlier than returning house.
Mirit Regev, whose 21-year-old daughter, Maya, was freed Sunday, instructed Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the household has been endorsed to “return the ability to her” of their interactions by at all times asking her for permission earlier than issues happen, resembling leaving the room. Regev’s 18-year-old son, Itai, continues to be being held by Hamas.
Itai Pessach, director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Youngsters’s Hospital at Sheba Medical Heart, 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 enhancing, there’s a really, very lengthy strategy to go earlier than they’re healed,” he stated.
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 inside Gaza for a couple of 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 attempting to get to the border, however I believe as a result of he didn’t have the sources to know the place he was and which path to flee, he had some hassle.”
He instructed her in a cellphone 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’s a boy who’s at all times smiling, and he can determine issues out in any state of affairs,” Magid stated.
Shoshan Haran, who was launched from Hamas captivity on Saturday night time, met with Israel’s President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday on the president’s workplace in Jerusalem. “I’m right here however there’s so many left behind,” Haran stated. “I nonetheless don’t have the complete image of what was right here, however I do know what was there, and it’s a must to do the utmost (to get them house).”
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 every time the kids cried with a purpose to maintain 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.
Kinfolk of Yaffa Adar, 85, who was launched on Friday night time, instructed Channel 12 that they didn’t bathe or change garments for all the 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 blissful and doing nicely and wished all of the captives would return house.
“I’m glad to have my life again,” she stated.
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AP journalist Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.
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