An elderly Israeli hostage who was released overnight said she had been beaten by militants when they abducted and took her to Gaza on Oct. 7 but was then treated well during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave. Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was one of the two older women Hamas freed late on Monday. She was reunited with her daughter Sharone in the early hours of Tuesday at Ichilov Hospital.
In a video published by the group, Lifshitz shook a gunman’s hand and wished him “shalom” as she was handed over to Red Cross officials. She also smiled and kissed her daughter’s hand. Sharone, a London-based artist and academic, said her mother was still tired, but she seemed otherwise in good condition. “It was amazing to hold and kiss her hand,” she said. “She cried, and she was very emotional.”
She described how the captives were treated well by their captors despite a shortage of food in the confined space. She said they slept on mattresses on the tunnel floor and ate the same pitta bread and cheese their captors did. She added that they were kept in clean conditions and had access to needed medications. They were also tended to by doctors who ensured they were not getting sick. “They took care of us, and they were very respectful,” she said.
During the two weeks she was held hostage, Lifshitz’s son called repeatedly to urge her to be brave. The woman who survived a long-term about with cancer said she did not want to give up on life, but the ordeal had been too much to bear. “I’ve been through hell,” she said, adding that the Israel Defense Forces had not taken Hamas’ threats seriously enough. “I don’t know if there was something they could have done, but they didn’t.”
Lifshitz was one of about 200 people from the kibbutz where she lives near the border with Gaza who were taken prisoner in the surprise attack by the Islamic militant group that shocked the country. The assault left more than 5,000 people dead in the enclave and prompted Israel’s massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which has so far killed nearly 400 people.
Israelis, including the prime minister and other officials, have expressed frustration with their military’s failure to detect and thwart the Hamas operation before it began. The head of the military intelligence agency has taken responsibility for the failure personally. Freeing the hostages should be Israel’s top priority, he has said, not its quest to destroy Hamas or control Gaza. However, many of the abductees are not being released. On Tuesday, a senior member of Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, told Sky News that most civilians among the captives would be released once Israel stops bombing Gaza. The woman’s grandson, who is staying at a hotel in the nearby city of Eilat, said his grandparents were “human rights activists and peace activists for all their lives” and that they had helped sick Gazans in need for decades.
