The Hamas hostage Yochved Lifshitz, liberated on Monday night by the al Qasam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist group that controls Gaza, stated this Tuesday that she was kidnapped “by armed men on motorcycles.” “I They hit me with sticks and gave me bruises. I went through hell“, has counted.

This was stated in a statement from the Tel Aviv hospital where she is admitted. Visibly shaken and somewhat disoriented, Lifshitz, 85, has urged that all the hostages, more than 220, kidnapped by Hamas and other militias during their October 7 attack in Israel, be released and can return to their homes, at a press conference at the Ichilov medical center.

“They took me, with my legs on one side and my head on the other, on a motorcycle,” said this woman sitting in a wheelchair during her appearance before the media, where she assured that when she was transported to Gaza her kidnappers beat her. with sticks In addition, she added that her captors took away the watch and jewelry she was wearing. After completing part of the journey on a motorcycle, she was forced to walk through the countryside until she reached a tunnel to enter the Strip.

The old woman has described the Hamas tunnel network like “a spider web.” At the end of one of the tunnels, she was taken to a large room where there were 25 other Hamas abductees, until two or three hours later she was taken with four other hostages to a separate room. ““They treated us well there,” he remarked, specifying that they gave him food and medicine. Lifshitz has criticized the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government, regretting that a fence that has cost “2 billion” has not served to protect Israelisin reference to the security barrier that separates Gaza from Israel.

Release for “humanitarian reasons”

The al-Qasam Brigades reported last night the release of Lifshitz and another Israeli woman, Nurit Yitzhak, 80, after mediation by Egypt and Qatar, which is why the spokesman for that militia, Abu Obeida, said as “compelling and satisfactory humanitarian reasons”.

The husbands of both women, who were also kidnapped, They remain in the hands of the Islamists. The four were abducted on October 7 from their homes by Hamas in the Nir Oz kibbutz, where Hamas militiamen killed members of that community. Lifshitz’s husband is well-known peace activist Oded Lifshitz, 83, who has transported cancer patients in Gaza to Israeli hospitals for treatment.