Ruti Munder, 78 years old, spent 50 days as a hostage of the extremist group; Her husband's whereabouts are unknown
Ruti Munder, 78, who spent 50 days as a Hamas hostage in Gaza, said she would never return to the region. Munder, a resident of Nir Oz, an Israeli town 2 km from the border, was arrested on October 7 the date the extremist group began the conflict in the Middle East.
“Perhaps one day Israelis will again take a trip to the beach in Gaza or welcome traders into their homes for coffee. I hope that our two peoples can finally live side by side in peace. But I know that this will never happen if Hamas remains in power,” he told the New York Times.
Munder told the American newspaper about the moment when “armed and masked Hamas men” broke into the bomb shelter of her home and kidnapped her, her daughter Keren and her grandson Ohad. Her husband Abraham was arrested separately and his whereabouts are still unknown. His son Roy died in the conflict.
“Later that day I was back in Khan Younis, 56 years after my beach trip,” Munder said, recalling his first visit to Gaza in 1967, when he was 22.
“That summer, Israel's victory over the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria brought Gaza under Israeli control and the shadows of war lifted from Nir Oz. A short time later I found myself in the back of a tractor with a group of kibbutz friends crossed the invisible border to the beautiful beach of Khan Younis. On the way back we took a detour via Rafah and bought pitas for the slow way back,” he said.
In the 49 days after Oct. 7, Munder said she spent most of her time locked in a small room on the second floor of a hospital. The prison guard went to Mohammad and said he was a Hamas soldier, but according to Munder, he didn't look like a soldier.
“I long for a world in which he would have been able to build his own business, live with dignity and speak fluently and with mutual respect to his Israeli neighbors. “I don’t think in this world he would have joined a terrorist group that sent him to take care of a kidnapped grandmother who meant him no harm,” the older woman said.
After 50 days as a hostage, Munder Khan left Younis in a Red Cross vehicle, accompanied by her daughter and grandson. A video released by Schneider Medical Center and reported by the Times of Israel newspaper shows the moment Ohad meets his father.
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