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Manila Bulletin devider World devider Freed Israeli 'went through hell' in attack, treated well in Gaza

Freed Israeli 'went through hell' in attack, treated well in Gaza

Published Oct 24, 2023 01:42 pm
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Palestinians walk past a building damaged in an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis on the southern Gaza Strip on October 24, 2023. Thousands of civilians, both Palestinians and Israelis, have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip entered southern Israel in an unprecedented attack triggering a war declared by Israel on Hamas with retaliatory bombings on Gaza. (Photo by Mahmud HAMS / AFP)

TEL AVIV, Israel– An Israeli 85-year-old freed by Palestinian militant group Hamas said Tuesday she "went through hell" during her abduction, but was treated well during more than two weeks held captive in Gaza.

Yocheved Lifshitz was a resident of Nir Oz kibbutz, one of the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip which Hamas militants attacked on October 7.

"I went through hell, I didn't think or know I'd get to this situation. They went on a rampage in our kibbutz, kidnapped me, lay me over a motorcycle... and sped off with me through the ploughed fields," she said a day after her release.

"The guys beat me on the way, they didn't break my ribs but hurt me there very much," Lifshitz said.

"They treated us well," she told reporters at a Tel Aviv hospital, explaining a doctor visited her and fellow hostages every two to three days and provided medicines.

Her husband, also in his 80s, is among more than 200 hostages still being held in Gaza.

"They treated us gently, and provided all our needs," she said, when asked why she reached out to shake the hand of a militant the moment she was freed.

Lifshitz described her captors as "very friendly" and "very courteous" people who held her with four other captives.

"They seemed ready for this, they prepared for a long time, they had everything that men and women needed, including shampoo," she told journalists.

"We ate the same food they did -- pitas with cream cheese, melted cheese, cucumbers. That was a meal for an entire day," said Lifshitz.

The octogenarian was released along with fellow Nir Oz resident Nurit Cooper, 79, three days after an American woman and her daughter were freed.

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