An elderly Israeli hostage who was recently released by Hamas praised the Palestinian jihadist group for their humane treatment towards her and others held captive.
“I went through hell,” Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, initially said in comments translated by her daughter Sharone. “The guys beat me on the way. They didn’t break my ribs but hurt me there very much.”
Footage shows freed Israeli hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, shaking Hamas captor’s hand during her release.
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But when asked why she shook the hand of a “friendly” captor before her release, Lifshitz said it was “because they treated us very nicely.”
Sharone elaborated, saying, “My mom is saying that they were very delicate and gentle with them and took care of all their needs.”
Released Hamas hostage says she SHOOK THEIR HANDS “because they treated me very nicely.”
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Lifshitz added the Hamas militants seemed “prepared” for housing hostages and “they took care of all the needs that women need, shampoo, conditioner” and even “feminine hygiene products.”
“Somebody with us who was injured, there was a paramedic with him,” she continued. “They brought him in a better condition. But after four or five days there was no improvement. Each person had a guard watching him or her. They took care of all their needs.”
“Each person had a guard watching him or her. They took care of all the needs. They talked about all kinds of things, they were very friendly.”
Yocheved Lifshitz details what it was like while being held hostage by Hamas.
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“They talked about all kinds of things. They were very friendly,” she added.
Lifshitz’s daughter went on to clarify what her mother saw and experienced when she was initially captured by Hamas.
“They arrived into a large hole in which about 25 hostages were gathered,” she said. “And after two or three hours those hostages, five of them – she among them – were taken into a separate room. My mom is saying they were very friendly towards them and that they took care of them, that they were given medicine, and that they were treated.”
Sharone Lifschitz, the daughter of freed hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, recounts her mother’s experience of being taken hostage by Hamas.
She says Hamas militants were “friendly” and describes how another hostage was treated by a paramedic. https://t.co/w3Jr8XxEZs
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“One of the men with them had been badly injured from a motorbike accident on the way. And the paramedic was looking after his wounds, he was given medicine and antibiotics. The people were friendly, they kept the place very clean,” she said, adding the hostages also were given the same food Hamas was eating.
Hamas captured over 200 people, mostly civilians, following its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“We are making valiant efforts to try to understand where the hostages are in Gaza, and we have such information,” said an Israeli military spokesperson, Daniel Hagari. “We will not carry out an attack that would endanger our people.”
Hamas recently claimed that all of the captives — one as young as 9 months old — would be released to the Red Cross if the “random bombardments” and “total destruction” of Gaza would end.