“Got through hell”: released Israeli hostage (85) describes how she was kidnapped by Hamas and ended up in their “spider web” of tunnels | Abroad

LOOK. Lifshitz testifies from a wheelchair with her daughter by her side

Hamas released two female hostages on Monday evening. 79-year-old Nurit Cooper and 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz arrived at the border post in the city of Rafah, where they were handed over by masked Hamas fighters. The terrorist group’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said the two elderly women were allowed to go for “compelling humanitarian reasons” and because of their poor health, among other reasons. Their release is said to have been brokered by Qatar and Egypt.

The two women, neighbors and friends, were abducted along with their husbands from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border, during Hamas’s October 7 surprise attack in Israel. Their husbands are still among the more than two hundred hostages that the Palestinian movement has been holding captive for more than two weeks.

More than a quarter of Nir Oz’s residents are dead or missing. Because the kibbutz is so close to the border fence with the Gaza Strip, it was one of the first communities targeted by Hamas militants that Saturday morning – and also one of the hardest hit. Houses are abandoned and destroyed. Windows are broken, bedrooms and living rooms set on fire, belongings scattered everywhere. Images show dried blood stains on beds and floors. Walls are full of bullet holes.

85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz had lived in the kibbutz for years. She worked as a photographer and teacher at the local high school. With her daughter kneeling by her side next to her wheelchair, the frail woman has now testified for the first time about what she experienced.

She says she was taken on a motorcycle by armed fighters during the Hamas attack. “They blew up the electric border fence first,” Lifshitz said. “That cost $2 million, but it didn’t help.”

The fighters then entered her home and attacked her severely. “No distinction was made between young and old,” she says. “They kidnapped me, I was taken on a motorcycle (…) and lay across the motorcycle, my upper body on one side and my legs on the other. The shabab (young Palestinians) beat me on the way. It was very painful. They hit me on my ribs. I could no longer breathe properly,” the woman told journalists. “They drove through the plowed fields to Gaza. During the ride, people hit me with sticks.”

The woman was then led through an immense and complicated tunnel complex that she describes as a “spider’s web”. She was being held there somewhere.

The atmosphere in the tunnels was more peaceful. During her time in captivity, she was treated well by Hamas, Lifschitz said. She is said to have been visited by a doctor several times. “They said they followed the Quran and would not harm us. They were gentle with us. Our needs were met. They were clearly prepared for us.”

The woman says that the hostages were lying on mattresses and that the hostage takers kept the sanitary facilities very clean. “They were afraid of the spread of disease.”

Images show how the 85-year-old woman briefly holds the hand of one of her hostage takers upon her release. “Shalom,” she says, a Hebrew greeting that means “peace.”

Daughter Sharone is happy that she can embrace her mother again, but she still fears for the lives of her father and the many other hostages being held. “We don’t know how they are doing. We don’t know if they are still alive or what their situation is.”

More than 200 people, including several foreigners, are still being held hostage by Hamas. Some are hidden in the extensive labyrinth of tunnels that the movement has built under the Gaza Strip. A few days ago, two hostages were released for the first time, an American woman and her teenage daughter.