Abuse and hunger

Gaza hostages report “return from hell”

Aviva S. was held captive for 51 days.(Bild: AFP)

"I came back from the dead" - with these words, a former Hamas hostage describes her captivity in the Gaza Strip. "Every day was endless, it was absolute despair," says Liat A. Many other people affected also report - of hunger and thirst, abuse, prohibitions, the incomprehensible suffering of the children, shortages of supplies and terrible hygienic conditions.

Liat A., a 49-year-old history professor, only found out after her release that her husband had been murdered on October 7. She reports terrible conditions, a lack of medication and food. 

"Children were forbidden to cry"
Released mothers who were abducted with their children also talk about this. "It was forbidden to cry, laugh or speak out loud," says Hagar B., who was abducted with her three children aged between four and ten.

"You can't teach a four-year-old child to cry quietly. The children were hungry, they were given one flatbread a day. I wouldn't wish it on any mother that she had to beg to give her children something to eat." It was "horror" not being able to protect her children.

The sisters Aviv and Raz K. were also abducted.(Bild: AFP)

Aviva S. was held captive for 51 days.(Bild: AFP)

Thousands of people have been demanding the release of the remaining hostages, who are in the hands of Hamas, for months.(Bild: AP)

"Resisting means risking your life"
The German-Israeli Jarden R. said of her hostage situation: "As a woman, you are constantly afraid of being raped or sexually abused, you have no way of defending yourself. Resisting means risking your life, this fear never lets you go." Her sister-in-law Carmel G. is still being held in the Gaza Strip along with 13 other women. 

In a detailed interview with the New York Times, Amit S. talks about her abuse in captivity. A guard "pointed a gun at me and forced me to perform a sexual act on him", says the 40-year-old. She is the only former hostage to summon up the courage to explicitly describe sexual violence - so far.

"They turned these girls into dolls"
But former prisoner Aviva S. also reports abuse, especially against young women: "They turned these girls into dolls that they could use as they pleased. I am a witness, I saw a girl being tortured. I would like to go back to protect them."

130 people still in captivity

During their brutal raid, Hamas fighters took around 250 hostages and killed around 1170 Israelis and foreigners by count, most of them civilians. The Israeli government assumes that there are still around 130 kidnapped people in the Gaza Strip, 34 of whom are presumed dead.

Kept in tunnels for weeks
Aviva was abducted from her home with her husband Keith on October 7. She went "through hell" for 51 days. "We weren't allowed to speak, we weren't allowed to get up, I was hungry and thirsty," she says, describing her time in the hands of Hamas. The hostages were dragged from tunnel to tunnel for weeks.

Aviva's T-shirt reads: "Bring Keith home, NOW!"(Bild: AFP)

Aviva was released at the end of November as part of a prisoner exchange, but her husband is still in the hands of Hamas. The 60-year-old woman's T-shirt reads: "Bring Keith home, NOW!"