Parents of freed Hamas hostages give details of ordeal

Parents of four young Israeli hostages released from Hamas captivity in Gaza told the BBC how their daughters had been mistreated, in particular to be hungry, intimidated and threatened by armed men, and forced to cook and clean.

They told the way the hostages took place in tunnels and underground buildings, were witness to physical violence and were made to participate in Hamas propaganda videos, including, in one case, simulating his own dead.

They said women had found strength by sharing stories, drawing and holding a newspaper.

None of the women has given interviews to the media since their release, and their parents say that the details of what they have endured always emerge. There are also things they cannot talk about because of the fears that it could put the hostages still in Gaza in danger.

Three of the four women whose parents spoke to the BBC were soldiers kidnapped by Hamas from the Nahal Oz army base near Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Access to the hostages to food and their treatment with male guards varied during the 15 months which were detained, said their parents. They were moved between the places, rarely seeing sunlight.

“It was very different between the places where she went – it could be a good tunnel, it could be a very bad tunnel. It could be a good house or a bad house,” said Agam Berger’s father, 20 years old, a soldier who had been in Nahal Oz.

Some places had good food, some had “very bad food … They just tried to survive,” said Shlomi Berger.

“They [and their captors] I had to flee one place to another because they are in a war area there. It was very dangerous to be there, “said Orly Gilboa, whose daughter Daniella was also kidnapped from the base.

When Daniella looked at the Release of three male hostages last week – Who came out thin and emaciated – She said to her mother: “If I was released two months ago, I would probably have looked like them.”

“She thinks herself, she has lost a lot of her weight through captivity. But in the past two months, they have had a lot of food to gain weight,” said Gilboa.

Other parents have also reported significant weight loss. The daughter of Meirav Leshem Gonen was taken by the Hamas of the Nova Music Festival.

Romi, 24, was released during the first week of the ceasefire in January-she had lost “20% of her body weight,” said her mother.

Ms. Gilboa says that the most difficult thing she endured was to see a video that suggested that her daughter had been killed. Her kidnappers poured powder on her so that she seemed to be covered with plaster, as if she had been killed in an Israeli military strike.

“I think everyone who saw him believe it, but I kept telling myself that it cannot be,” she told the BBC.

The war was triggered by the unprecedented attack of Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, when armed men killed around 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

More than 48,230 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Ministry of Health managed by Hamas in the territory. About two thirds of the Gaza buildings have been destroyed or damaged, said the UN.

Until now, 16 Israeli hostages and five Thai hostages have been exchanged for more than 600 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel under the cease-fire agreement that started on January 19.

Mr. Berger says that his daughter, Agam, was threatened by his kidnappers and witnessed physical violence in captivity.

“Sometimes they tortured other female hostages before his eyes,” he said, specifically referring to an assault on Amit Soussana, a former hostage that was released in November 2023.

Mr. Berger says that his daughter told him how they were constantly watched by armed men, “playing all the time with their weapons and their hand grenades”.

He says that male captors have treated women with “a great lack of respect”, in particular by forcing them to clean and prepare food.

“It really bothers her. She is a girl that if she has something to say, she will say it. She is not shy. And sometimes she told them what she thought of them and their behavior”, he said.

He adds that in a small act of resistance, Agam had refused to carry out work on the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest. The men who held her accepted this.

They were also not allowed to speak loudly.

“When Agam came [back to Israel] She wanted to speak all the time … After a day, she had no voice because she had spoken so much, “says Mr. Berger.

Yoni Levy, whose daughter Naama, 20, was also taken from the army base, says that she was sometimes owned in places where there was a television or a radio.

Once, Naama saw her father speak on television. “It gave him a lot of hope and optimism … that nobody would forget it, and we will do everything necessary to get it out of this hell.”

He says that for Naama, the attack on Hamas on the basis of the army was “was much more traumatic than the captivity itself”.

“It can change, but at this stage, we think it is the most tragic day she talked about,” said Levy.

Images of Naama that day show and other female soldiers in bloody clothes surrounded by armed men in a room at the base before being forced into a vehicle and taken to Gaza.

The three female soldiers whose parents spoke to the BBC are among the five in an armed military unit entirely armed in Nahal Oz released in the first round of the ceasefire.

The members of the unit, known in Hebrew under the name of Tatzpitaniyot, are responsible for observing the Gaza border and looking for signs of something suspect. The survivors and relatives of some of those who killed that day say that they have been warning for months that Hamas was preparing for an attack.

A few days before the attack on October 7, Daniella was at home for a break in the service. She then said to her mother, “Mom, when I return to the army, there will be a war.”

“I did not think it would be such a war and of course that my daughter would be taken hostage,” said Gilboa.

Ms. Gilboa and the families of the other two observers who spoke to the BBC say that they are joining calls for an investigation into what happened.

They say that their daughters remain concerned about the conditions of those who are still in Gaza and have called the ceasefire to continue.

Meanwhile, Ms. Leshem Gonen says she always learns what happened to her daughter Romi.

She was killed at the Nova Music Festival and her mother said that she was not correctly treated, leaving her with “an open injury where she could see the bone”.

“This is something we can know and that she talks. Other things, I think it will take time.”

Leshem Gonen says that Romi described her release during the first week of the truce as “intimidating” and “frightening”. It was surrounded by armed man and crowds. But the moment of their meeting was “so powerful”.

Parents also described how their daughters had found ways to go into captivity every day – drawing, taking notes or sharing stories between them.

“They wrote as much as they could, every day – what was going on, where they moved, who were the guards and things like that,” explains Mr. Berger.

In captivity, young women had dreamed of things they wanted to do when they got home: getting a haircut and eating sushi.

Daniella had drawn a butterfly with the word “freedom” when he was in captivity – she now tattooed on her arm.

They adapt to life in Israel, and their families say they are restoring step by step.

The time of the meeting with his daughter Naama is still vague, says Mr. Levy, but he remembers emotion.

“The feeling was that … I’m going to take care of you now, and everything is going well. Dad is there. That’s it. And then everything was calm.”

Additional Naomi Scherbel-Ball reports