Tied. Starved. Wounded. Tortured. These are the conditions that some hostages are held in Gaza are still confronted, according to information that their families have said that they have received from Israeli military and security officials after Hamas released three prisoners on Saturday as part of an agreement on the termination of fire.
The giggling look of three hostages published ua Ceremony in Gaza Hamas shook last weekend – Eli Sharabi, 52; Or Levy, 34; And Ohad Ben-ami, the 56-and details of their captivity have the relatives of the remaining prisoners who sound alarm because of the urgent need for a phase fire interruption agreement. Urgency comes as a militant group on Monday said it would Delay indefinitely The following editions with hostages, set for Saturday, citing Israeli violations of the cessation of fire.
Before they were handed over to the Red Cross officers in exchange for 183 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, fragile, painfully thin hostages were paradhed on stage before the crowd in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, and each held a certificate of Hamas, “” And made to recite the words written for them – including the gratitude of the militants who held them for 16 months.
A doctor in charge of supervising the treatment of two liberated Israeli hostages later said they were in bad condition. The third was in a “heavy nutritional state”, According to the official at the hospital he was treated.
Hamas said he was treating his captives.
According to the initial stages of the fire interruption agreement, the armed Palestinian group agreed to release 25 living hostages and bodies of eight killed, in exchange for about 1,500 Palestinian prisoners. So far, about half of these exchange has been implemented.
Hamas denied the “brutal procedure of our prisoners” of Israeli officials on Saturday. “This includes constant attacks, torture and disrespect for age or severe health conditions suffered by many prisoners,” the statement said, pointing out that the difference in treatment between hostages and prisoners is said.
Idit Ohel, whose son Alon Ohel turned 24 on Monday and spent his second birthday in captivity in Gaza, told reporters at Brifing to find out from military sources who spoke with the recently released hostages her son received very little food and No medical care for multiple injuries, including eye injuries that partially blinded him.
Mr. Ohel, who was captured at the Nova Music festival during the Hamas -guided attack on October 7, 2023, had already kept and tortured most of his time, said she had learned from Israeli military officials. “It wasn’t easy to hear,” Mrs. Ohel said. “I have to say that I even fainted.”
“I don’t think there is a mother in this world that could even sleep,” knowing that their child endured such suffering, she added.
Similarly, Sigi Cohen, the mother of another hostage, Eliya Cohen, who was 26 when she was captured, said on Monday that she had learned from Israeli security forces that her son was shot in her leg during the 2023 attack. – He also did not receive the treatment of his injuries.
Her son reportedly does not see almost no sun and has been tied to most of her almost 500 days in captivity, she added.
The New York Times could not confirm the information on its own. A spokesman for the Israeli army, he arrived on the phone, refused to comment on Monday, stating the sensitivity of the topic.
The recently liberated statements of hostages on what they and others endured with the accounts of some other prisoners exempt from the first phase of the fire interruption agreement came into force last month.
And Dr. Hagai Levine, who runs a medical team for a hostage family forum, an umbrella group, told reporters on Monday that hostages were “starving” and enduring “intentional torture”, and many returned home with infections that could Become a threat as well as emotional damage.
“The findings are clear and deeply alarming,” he said. “They are subject to deliberate starvation and a serious lack of water” and “undergo extreme physical and emotional abuse.”
“There is a clear and present danger to all the lives of hostages,” Dr. Levine added. He said that every delay in posting the hostages “would probably cost lives.”
The relatives of some of the recently published have also described details about hostages experiences – and the terrible state they are now.
“Yesterday, my brother or returned to us after 491 days of hell,” Michael Levy said in a statement on Sunday. His distraction was held in Hamas tunnels and returned to Israel the shadow of the man he used to be, his brother said.
“I hugged him, but he wasn’t the same or who left home 7 October,” said Mr. Levy, noting that his brother returned in a bad physical condition and spent 16 months “hungry, barefoot and in a permanent fear” The day could be the last.
But the “hardest blow” came on Saturday, he said, when his brother found out that his wife Eina Levy did not survive the attack at the new music festival.
The latest details on the conditions under which some hostages were held came because it seemed to be a fragile truce.
Ofer Calderon, who was published earlier this month, said in a statement on Monday: “I was held in tunnels without seeing daylight, I did not have access to the media, experienced difficult hunger conditions, went through the whole month without showering or receiving appropriate care. “
He called for a continuation of the Prira and noted that after the first temporary agreement of the war, he was reached between Israel and Hamas, in November 2023, the conditions during his captivity and other hostages “seriously worsened and became brutal.”
“We must not stop the current contract and we must continue to work on the liberation of all hostages,” said Mr. Calderon. “Hamas is a cruel enemy who will not hesitate to harm the hostages that are behind.”
