It’s been over 15 months since Ilana Gritzewsky was released from Hamas’s captivity in Gaza. He still doesn’t feel free. Her partner remains hostage.
He was captured with Mrs. Gritzewsky from their house in the Israeli border village on October 7, 2023, during Hamas’ attack who lit War in Gaza And among the hostages, Hamas still holds, more than 500 days later.
Traumatized by her own violent abduction, Mrs. Gritzewsky, 31, dedicated herself to a campaign on behalf of the hostages still in the endlave, including her partner Matan Zangauker, and two men she said was in the Hamas tunnel when she was in captivity.
They were all abducted from the same Israeli Kibbutz, Nir Oz, near the border with Gaza – among about 250 hostages recorded that day. Now there are about 24 living soils still in Gaza, according to the Israeli government, along with the remains of at least 35 others who were taken that October.
Mrs. Gritzewsky said the surreal was beaten and then harassed her as they drove her to Gaza. Taken herself, she said she was dropping on her way and woke up in an enclave surrounded by an armed, half naked, terrified and vulnerable.
The fate of the hostages has become more and more uncertain, such as Israel returned to the fight in Gaza In the risky effort to press Hamas to release multiple prisoners, in the middle of the back in conversations about the interruption of fire.
Trading on their fate was left by Mrs. Gritzewsky a little time for self -healing.
“I’m not very available for my own rehab, not for the body, not the least for the soul,” she said.
“I live with the question of why I, not them. I have no answer,” she said, adding, “But if I go out, it is a sign that God wanted me to raise my voice to help those who are alive to gain their freedom and return the dead for a fair burial.”
Mrs. Gritzewsky’s battle is in the center of a fluttering discussion in Israeli society about the priorities of the country. Supported by a wide part of a society who wants a hostage edition priority at all costs, even if it means to allow Hamas stay in power In Gaza for now. But the other-uttered powerful ministers in the right-wing government-to defeat Hamas, even if it delays or prevents the contract on the release of the remaining hostages.
Mr. Zangauker’s mother, Eina Zangauker, appeared as A prominent voice in protests against outing Set by some hostage families. They are frustrated by what they consider to be withdrawing the feet of Israeli government for negotiating the freedom of prisoners.
Some former hostages and families of many currents have harvested their hopes in Trump’s administration instead. Recently, hostages were recently published this month, they flew to the United States for meetings with President Trump and Administration officials. Included Eli Sharabi, that returned On February 8 to find his wife and two daughters were killed in October 2023, Attack, and Keith Siegel, American Israel, followed by his wife, Aviva Siegel, who was abducted and released in November 2023.
Mrs. Gritzewsky recently returned with a month in the United States, where she met with Trump’s administration officials and Jewish communities, attended a conference of conservative political action and addressed a hostage rally in Central Park.
Mrs. Gritzewsky moved to Israel from Mexico in teenagers. After starting a pastry job, she went to work on a medical cannabis farm to Nir Oz, where she met Mr. Zangauker. They became a couple and moved together. “We liked the silence of Kibut, with a cup of coffee and cigarettes,” she said. “I prefer anonymity.”
When armed Hired Nir Oz Early that October morning, they crossed the house to the house until the attackers reached their own, Mrs. Gritzewsky said. The couple jumped out the window of their safe room as the attackers shot at the door. They ran in different directions, and Mrs. Gritzewsky lost the sight of Mr. Zangauker. Then her nightmare continued quickly, beaten and taken to Gaza.
She said she was trapped between two weapons on a motorcycle, head and face covered with a large piece of nylon or ceradolin. The home security camera that belonged to the resident of Nir Oz, Eyal Barad, grabbed a moment, showing her a white cloth wrapped around her head on an armed motorcycle. Mrs. Gritzewsky said the men pressed their legs on the exhaust pipe, burned her and that one of the kidnappers sitting behind her had knocked her, touching her breasts under his shirt and legs. She left before they crossed the border.
When she came, she said, she found herself on the floor in a destroyed building, clearly in Gaza, her shirt pulled her breasts and pants demolished, and there were seven weapons over her. She doesn’t know exactly what happened to her while they were brought to her, but she said she gestured to them and told them in English to have menstruation, believing that she probably saved her from above. “They hit me and raised me,” she said.
“I felt they were disappointed,” she said, adding, “I don’t think I was never so grateful for my menstruation.”
For more than 50 days, she was moved from a place to a place, mostly above ground, initially alone with her abductors, and then kept with other hostages. Although she told her kidnappers that she had suffered from a chronic digestive disease, she said she was not provided with any cure. She said she was kept in private residences, at the hospital and, shortly before releasing, in the tunnel.
Mrs. Gritzewsky said she had been questioned for her army. (She ended her military duty about ten years ago.) One of her abductors hugged her and told her, as he pointed her gun at her, that even if there was a deal, she would not be released because she wanted to marry her and have her children, she said. She said one told her that he was a math teacher and the other was a lawyer. She said they stole her earrings and bracelets.
She realized that Mr. Zangauker also abducted Gaza – when she described his long hair to one of his kidnappers, he showed that Captor confirmed that he was a hostage, calling him from Ofakim, the hometown of Zangauker – but never saw him in captivity.
Mrs. Gritzewsky was released on November 30, 2023, during a weekly story, when many other women and children were liberated in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Upon her return, she discovered that she had a broken hip. Avigail Legg-Dvir, therapist Ms. Gritzewsky from releasing her release, said Mrs. Gritzewsky shared with her the main details of her abduction and captivity: Violence when she was taken, motorcycle ride, an attack, she woke up half a goal on the field and intimidating in capture. Mrs. Gritzewsky said she also linked the details to the Israeli police investigators.
United Nations Report published last year They found signs that the participants in October 7. The attack led by Hamas on Israel committed sexual violence in multiple locations and said that some hostages holding in Gaza were subjected to rape and sexual torture. UN commission He also accused Israel of sexual and gender violence during his gauze campaign, including torture, abuse and sexual humiliation.
In December 2024. Hamas posted a video of Mr. Zangauker in captivity, in which he begged the leaders of Israel to conclude a contract that would bring him home and other hostages.
Legal groups And international law experts say that the video for hostage, by definition, is made under the coercion and that the statements in it are usually forced. Israeli officials have called the past Hamas videos with the form of a “psychological war”, and experts say that their production can be a war crime.
But Mrs. Gritzewsky, the video provided proof that her partner is still alive.
“That wasn’t my Matan,” she said. “He was thin, with frightened eyes, screaming inside to save him. He broke me, but it also gave me hope,” she said. “He survived.”
