Little food and isolated in the dark. Despite the discretion requested by Israeli authorities, details are slowly emerging about the circumstances under which the hostages in the Gaza Strip were captured by Hamas in the October 7 attack on Israel.

The bloody attack, unprecedented on Israeli soil, prompted Israeli retaliation in the small Palestinian territory ruled by the Islamist movement. The Israeli army bombed Gaza day and night until the ceasefire came into effect on November 24.

None of the 81 Israeli or foreign hostages released since the ceasefire began have spoken publicly about their conditions of captivity. Israeli authorities have asked for discretion not to endanger the hostages still held captive.

But relatives and health workers who treated them revealed some elements.

According to Dr. Ronit Zaidenstein of Shamir Hospital, the 17 Thai hostages he examined after their release were fed “a diet low in nutrients” during their captivity.

“The people we studied lost a significant amount of their weight, 10% or more, in a very short time.”

The Israeli military estimates that approximately 240 people were forcibly transferred to the Gaza Strip on October 7. About a third have been returned in exchange for the release of 180 Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Quoted by the Ynet news portal, Dr. Margarita Mashavi of Wolfson Hospital in an interview published on Monday that the hostages she was able to talk to told her they were being held in the basement.

“They got two hours of light” a day, he noted in the interview, which is no longer available locally.

His patients told him they ate “rice, hummus, canned beans, and sometimes cheese with bread, but nothing else. No fruits, vegetables or eggs.”

In addition to the bombings, residents of the Gaza Strip are suffering significant shortages of food and basic needs and the UN World Food Program (WFP) warned on Tuesday of a “high risk of famine”.

“When they asked for a pen or pencil to write or pass the time, the Hamas men refused for fear that they would pass on information. They had no television or reading, they spent their time arguing,” Mashavi said.

Esther Yaeli, grandmother of Etan, a 12-year-old French-Israeli who was released on Monday, told the Walla news portal that her grandson spent 16 days in isolation.

“The days he was alone were horrible,” he said. ‘Now Etan seems very introverted.’

This image, taken from a video distributed by the Israeli military, shows 9-year-old Irish former Israeli hostage Emily Hand hugging her father at a hospital in Israel after being released by Hamas, amid a hostage exchange operation against prisoners between Hamas and Israel. on November 26, 2023. Photo: AFP

Emily Hand is whispering now

Emily, a 9-year-old Israeli-Irish girl released on Saturday, is “terrified of making noise” and now only “whispers” when she speaks, her father, Tom Hand, told British newspaper The Sun.

“They must have told him to keep quiet all the time and he is still afraid to make noise,” he added.

“When he came back, I literally had to put my ear to his lips to hear what he was saying,” Tom Hand said in the interview.

“She was a normal, happy, loud girl, but now she whispers when she talks. “They must have told him to keep quiet all the time and he is still afraid to make noise,” he added.

Emily, who turned 9 on November 17 while in Hamas custody, was abducted on October 7 while sleeping in Kibbutz Beeri with a friend, 13-year-old Hila, who was also released on Saturday.

Emily, whose mother died of cancer when she was just two and a half years old, was initially presumed dead before it was revealed that she was one of the hostages.

In the interview with The Sun, her father claims that Hamas constantly moved her from one shelter to another to escape the Israeli army.

The liberated

The ceasefire treaty, negotiated with the support of Egypt and the United States, has already allowed the release of 60 Israeli hostages and 180 Palestinians.

Two hostages were hospitalized after their release, including Elma Avraham, 84, who was transferred by helicopter to intensive care. Doctors feared his condition had worsened “due to the lack of appropriate treatments” for his age, but on Tuesday they announced his condition was improving.

Hagar Mizrahi, head of the hostage file at Israel’s Health Ministry, told AFP that some were being held in “horrendous conditions” with “obvious medical consequences.”

He refused to provide details and invoked medical confidentiality.

“Some of the things I have heard in recent days leave me heartbroken,” he said, without going into details. “They are monstrous from every point of view.” (JO)