An Israeli hostage released by Hamas has described the “hell” she endured being abducted from her home alongside her husband and being held captive for 16 days.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was one of two elderly hostages set free by the Palestinian militant group on Tuesday after being kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7.
“I went through a hell that we’d never imagined. They rampaged through the kibbutz,” Yocheved told reporters outside a Tel Aviv hospital.
“They stormed into our homes. They beat people. They kidnapped others, the old and the young without distinction.”
Yocheved who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and uses a wheelchair, says she was thrown on the back of a motorcycle.
“When I was on the bike, my legs were on one side and the rest of my body on the other side,” she said.
“The young men hit me on the way. They didn’t break my ribs but it was painful and I had difficulty breathing.”
The elderly victim said that five people from her kibbutz were held captive together and a doctor visited them every second day to bring them medication.
“When we got there, first of all they told us that they believed in the Koran and that they would not harm us,” she recalled.
“They took good care of the wounded.”
Yocheved added that Israel’s AUD$1.3 billion fence along the Gaza border designed to detect all security threats was “no help at all” when the mob of Hamas terrorists converged.
Her daughter, Sharone Lifschitz, has released a statement expressing relief that her mother is now safe.
She said her focus is now on securing the release of her 83-year-old father and veteran Israeli journalist, Oded Lifshitz, 83.
“While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those – some 200 innocent people – who remain hostages in Gaza.”
On Friday Hamas set free Americans, Judith Raanan, 60, and her teenage daughter Natalie, following Qatari mediation efforts.
The 18-year-old recent high school graduate and her 60-year-old mother were freed for “humanitarian reasons”, Hamas said in a statement released on Telegram.
The two victims from Chicago had travelled to Israel to celebrate a relative’s 85th birthday, when they were kidnapped from the Nahal Oz kibbutz near the Gaza border.
An estimated 220 people – including a nine-month-old baby, children, grandparents, people with disabilities and soldiers – were kidnapped from southern Israel when Hamas unleashed its campaign of terror on Saturday, October 7.
