Yochaved Lifshitz, one of two elderly hostages released by Hamas on Monday, told reporters on Tuesday morning that she had “gone through hell” and was beaten the day she was captured, but that when she returned she had the hand of one Hamas fighters shook because they were treated well in captivity.
Lifshitz was abducted along with her 83-year-old husband Oded from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border. However, Lifshitz said she was not held captive with Oded, who remained missing Tuesday.
Hamas said it released Lifshitz, 85, along with Nurit Cooper, 79, late Monday for health reasons. The Palestinian group, long designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and many other nations, is still holding more than 200 people hostage following its unprecedented rampage in southern Israel on October 7.
Yocheved Lifshitz shakes hands with a Hamas fighter in this video screenshot obtained by Portal on October 23, 2023. Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing/Handout via Portal
Israeli officials say the group killed more than 1,400 people in its first siege and ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza. Health officials in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that more than 5,700 people had been killed by Israeli airstrikes, but Israel disputed that figure.
Lifshitz and her husband are longtime human rights activists and her family said they both worked with a local organization that helps transport injured Palestinians to area hospitals. Video of the moment she was handed over by her Hamas captors on Monday shows her shaking hands with one of the militants and saying “Shalom,” a traditional Hebrew greeting that means “peace.”
At a news conference Tuesday alongside her daughter Sharone, Lifshitz described how Hamas militants “stormed, beat and kidnapped with no distinction between young and old” on the day of the Oct. 7 attack.
“They kidnapped me, put me on a motorcycle and flew me through the plowed fields with a rope on each side of me. During this time, the jewelry was removed from my body,” said a frail-looking Lifshitz while sitting in a wheelchair.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, an Israeli grandmother who was held hostage in Gaza, speaks to members of the press after being released by Hamas militants at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel, October 24, 2023. JANIS LAIZANS/Portal
She added that the Hamas attackers easily breached a protective electric fence around their kibbutz that she said Israeli authorities had installed.
Sharone Lifshitz, who helped translate her mother’s remarks from Hebrew into English, said her elderly mother was beaten with sticks by her captors and taken by Hamas through a “vast network of underground tunnels … like a spider’s web.”
The 85-year-old woman said that when she and the other prisoners she was with were first taken to the Hamas tunnels, “they said they believed in the Koran and would not harm us.”
Yocheved Lifshitz (left) and Nurit Cooper (right) were released by Hamas on Monday, October 23, for health reasons. Distribute photos via Portal
She said a doctor was present and would visit the hostages every few days, bringing needed medication, and that Hamas members treated their captives “gently” during the two weeks she was held.
When asked why she shook hands with one of her captors, Lifshitz said they “met all of our needs. They seemed ready for it. They have been preparing it for a long time and have prepared all the needs that women and men need.”
Despite what she called humane treatment, Lifshitz made it clear that her ordeal was “very difficult” and that she would not put it behind her anytime soon: “I always remember everything.”
Lifshitz sharply criticized the Israeli military for allowing the attack in the first place.
“We were the scapegoat. The army and the state have failed us. She [Hamas] “Burned our fields, sent fire balloons, crowds came,” she said, pointing to smaller Hamas attacks in the months and years before Oct. 7. “The army didn’t take it seriously.”
The head of Israel’s military intelligence has taken personal responsibility for his failure to detect and thwart the brutal Hamas attack, which some analysts say was almost openly planned by the militants for many months.
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