The 85-year-old Israeli Yocheved Lifschitz explained at a press conference in Tel Aviv this Tuesday what her captivity in the Gaza Strip was like during the 17 days in which she remained in the hands of Hamas. Lifschitz said she was beaten by militants when they took her to Gaza on October 7, but then treated them well during her two weeks in captivity, Portal reported.
Lifschitz was one of two women released late Monday, along with Nurit Yitzhak, 80, also known as Nurit Cooper. “I went through hell, we didn’t think or know we would be in this situation,” explained the elderly woman, sitting in a wheelchair outside the doors of the Tel Aviv hospital where she was transferred after her discharge.
Lifshitz appeared before journalists with her daughter Sharone and said they had put her on a motorcycle and taken her from her kibbutz (agricultural cooperative) in Nir Oz to the nearby Gaza Strip. “When I was riding my motorcycle, my head was on one side and the rest of my body was on the other. The young men beat me on the way. “They hit me in the ribs and I could barely breathe.” Lifschitz said the militants took her watch and jewelry before driving her on the motorcycle through some bushes toward the Strip.
Her grandson Daniel Lifschitz told Portal in Tel Aviv before her release that she and her husband Oded Lifschitz, 83, still held by the Palestinian group, had been peace activists throughout the war. “For more than a decade, every week they brought sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, not from the West Bank, but from the Gaza Strip, from the Erez border to hospitals in Israel to be treated for their illnesses, cancer or anything else.”, added the grandson.
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Yocheved Lifschitz did not avoid criticism of the Israeli government when he recounted details of his imprisonment: “[Los secuestradores de Hamás] “They blew up the electric fence, this particular fence that cost $2.5 billion to build, but that didn’t help at all,” Lifschitz continued. The former activist said that neither the Israeli government, the army nor the intelligence services had taken seriously the threatening signals that had come from Hamas for three weeks. “We were the government’s scapegoats. (…) The government abandoned us three weeks ago. [Hamás] “They came out en masse, they set our fields on fire, they sent balloons that started fires in our fields.”
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Lifschitz also covered the first moment of the Oct. 7 attack, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. “They attacked our homes. They beat people and took some hostages. They made no distinction between young and old, it was very painful. They took us to the entrance to the tunnels. We reached the tunnel and walked for miles on wet ground. “There’s a huge tunnel system, like spider webs.”
Lifshitz added: “When we arrived, they told us that they believed in the Koran, that they would not harm us and that we would live in the same conditions as them in the tunnels.” We started walking through the tunnels. The earth is wet and everything is always wet and damp. We arrived in a room where there were 25 people. After two or three hours, they separated five of the people from my kibbutz, Nir Oz. “They were watching us closely.”
The old woman explained that the kidnappers had provided medicine to those who needed it. According to their statements, carefully recorded by Israeli Haaretz journalists, the hostages were treated well and the kidnappers were friendly to them. “They put us on mattresses, made sure we didn’t get sick, and we had a doctor with us every two or three days.”
Lifschitz stated that the kidnappers divided their victims into groups based on where they lived. “They kept us very clean. “They made sure we ate the same things they ate: flatbread with white cheese, melted cheese and cucumber.” Asked about the picture from the moment of her release, in which she shakes hands with one of the Hamas kidnappers, Lifschitz said : “They treated us gently and took care of us.” They were prepared for this, they had been preparing for this for a long time. They had everything women and men needed. Even shampoo and conditioner.”
There are still 220 hostages in the hands of Hamas.
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