An Israeli Health Ministry official confirmed Tuesday that Hamas gave Israeli hostages sedatives to make them appear to be in good spirits as their release was filmed.
The revelation came during a meeting of the Knesset Health Committee on the health of the 110 civilian hostages who were returned to Israel from Gaza last week in exchange for Palestinians held on terrorism charges.
Some major accounts on X, TikTok and other social media had claimed that hostages viewed the Hamas terrorists with affection as they handed them over to the International Red Cross.
But Likud lawmaker Moshe Saada said he heard from the hostages’ families that they were given “all sorts of pills to make them feel high.”
“Is that true?” he asked.
Ronit Endevelt, head of nutrition at Israel’s Ministry of Health, said yes.
“This is something the public didn’t know,” Saada continued. “What kind of pills?”
Hagar Mizrahi, head of the Department of General Medicine at the Ministry of Health, responded that they were “given Clonex to improve their mood.”
Clonex is the Israeli brand name for what is known in America as Klonopin, a sedative in the benzodiazepine class. It is a sedative and muscle relaxant with hypnotic properties that takes effect within an hour. It can produce a euphoric feeling in those who take it and is sometimes used as a recreational drug.
“This is part of the psychological terror that Hamas is spreading [the hostages] through,” said Saada. “A pill like this works quickly on someone unaccustomed to its influence, making them feel high when their mental state was actually very poor.”
Drug use is part of the physical violence, psychological torture and neglect to which the hostages were subjected.
On the subject of nutrition, the Ministry of Health noted in a committee presentation that most of the hostages had lost significant weight. Children kept with adults fared better and those injured were in poorer nutritional status. Some of the doctors caring for the hostages said last week that they were malnourished and had lost 10-20% of their body weight.
Endevelt said the hostages were also given food shortly before their release to make them appear healthier.
Many hostages were severely deficient in vitamin D because they were kept away from sunlight, and some suffered from digestive problems, according to the Health Ministry, and it was likely that other nutritional problems such as digestive problems and eating disorders would arise in the future.
Shir Siegal, daughter of freed U.S. citizen Aviva Siegal, and Keith Siegal, still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, said their captors “handcuffed them, tortured them and did not give them medicine.”
“There are stories that they were treated well, they were given food – they didn’t give them food, they didn’t give them water,” Siegal said. “As we speak, a holocaust is taking place three hours from here…[Aviva] said to myself last night, “How can I function when I know exactly what’s happening there?” [in Gaza] and my husband is still there?’ So tell me, what should I tell my mother?”
Several relatives of the hostages used the meeting to encourage all parts of the Israeli government to do everything in their power to free their loved ones and expressed concern that the hostage releases would not continue.
The Health Committee meeting focused on the care provided to released hostages since their return to Israel. Each returned hostage was accompanied by a nurse from their health insurance provider to ensure they received the medications they needed and to coordinate their physical and mental health care. Israel’s National Insurance Institute assigned a social worker to each hostage’s family and awarded NIS 100,000 ($26,800) to each hostage.
In addition to providing medical care to the hostages, the Health Ministry documented “findings on their bodies” indicating that war crimes were committed while they were still in the hospital, according to the presentation made to the committee.