For more details on the investigation into the daily lives of the released hostages in the Gaza Strip, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, see The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Wednesday morning.
The three rescued hostages lived in a dark room for six months, sleeping on small mattresses on the floor, and their only connection to the outside world was by guards who brought them food and sometimes abused them, according to the report.
Former hostages said they could hear the Gaza family and their children living downstairs but never met them, but one day when the family went out they were allowed to go downstairs and use the kitchen.
Hostages were punished if they did not comply with Hamas’ strict rules, which included being locked in the bathroom, being covered with multiple blankets during hot weather, and receiving multiple death threats.
Despite the hardships, the hostages learned Arabic, taught each other Hebrew and Russian, and recorded their experiences in diaries. The three became close friends, and this bond helped them endure the hardships.
At times, the guards told them that no one cared about them and that no one would come to help them. However, on her birthday, which only she knew because she had written the date on a notepad, she was allowed to watch Al Jazeera in Arabic. There was a meeting of hostage families in Tel Aviv, and Meir reported seeing her face on a placard in the crowd.
“He felt he had not been forgotten,” said Almog’s uncle, Aviram Meir.
Uncovering Trauma
The accounts of the hostages’ stay in Gaza are based on interviews with their relatives, security officials, and medical personnel. Israeli security officials have asked the hostages and their relatives to keep details of their captivity secret, as much remains unclear about their ordeal and that of Noa Al-Ghamani since her brutal kidnapping at the Nova festival on October 7.
The full extent of the abuse suffered by other hostages who were released earlier emerged more than a month later, with descriptions of being held captive in underground tunnels and subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse.
A doctor treating a group of hostages rescued or freed since Oct. 7 said they had endured “physical and mental torture,” despite initial assessments based on their upbeat appearances on television.
Dr. Itai Pesach, part of the team at Sheba Medical Center in central Israel that treated the rescued hostages, said the hostages’ initial emergence was largely due to the adrenaline in their bodies and the joy of being free. Security forces and the hostages identified Abdallah al-Jamal, a Palestinian journalist who lived in the apartment, as one of the kidnappers.
Abdallah and his father, Ahmed al-Jamal, a doctor and imam at a local Hamas-run mosque, were killed during the operation. Neighbors said they had long known about Abdallah al-Jamal’s ties to Hamas.
The rescue operation took place amid heavy Hamas fire in a crowded street in Nuseira, central Gaza. Pesach said the hostages’ weight had likely changed during their captivity due to fear, stress and ill-treatment. They showed signs of muscle wasting and malnutrition and had lost the ability to carry out certain activities, he said.
“We heard unimaginable stories,” Pesach said. The three male hostages arrived in Israel with shaved heads, beards and well-groomed clothing. Aviram Meir described his nephew’s skin as pale. “They hadn’t seen the sun in eight months,” he said.
A successful rescue operation would force Hamas to change the way it hides its hostages, but it wouldn’t necessarily make things worse for the hostages, Younes al-Zalai, a Palestinian political commentator, told the Journal.
“They will probably ensure that there is only one hostage in the same place and move them frequently to avoid detection. Their security agencies will manage these arrangements,” Al-Zuraie said.
It remains unclear where the three male hostages were being held before being transferred to the house where they were rescued. Al-Ghamani was held in multiple houses along with other hostages before reaching his final destination. The other released hostages reported being held in underground tunnels.
Sources familiar with the matter say US intelligence in Israel is assisting in the search for the hostages. A former Israeli military hostage commander, Avi Caro, said the fact that the three male hostages had been held together for so long with no rescue mission showed that sophisticated intelligence was needed to successfully rescue them.
“They need to be verified to a high standard of information,” he said.
