Israelis held hostage: No mistreatment, little food
According to their relatives, Israeli hostages were not mistreated during their captivity by the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "It's very comforting to know that," Osnat Meiri, a cousin of released hostage Keren Munder, told the Israeli newspaper "Yedioth Achronot".
Keren was abducted together with her nine-year-old son Ohad and grandmother Ruti during the bloody Hamas raid in the Gaza Strip on October 7. They were released on Friday as part of the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. But of course it was not known whether all the hostages taken to the coastal strip were being held under the same conditions, Meiri added.
Some days there was only pita bread
The conditions under which the hostages were held were described as harsh. The people prepared their own food, the newspaper continued. "But there were also days when there was nothing to eat, and sometimes the abductees had to wait an hour and a half before they were allowed to go to the toilet," the newspaper quoted Merav Raviv, a member of the Munder family, as saying on Monday. On some days there was only pita bread (flat bread), and when that was no longer available, the detainees only received a small portion of rice. There were also no couches or beds; they slept on benches or pushed-together chairs.
The people were not always held in underground rooms during their almost seven weeks as hostages. "They were always taken to a different place from time to time," said Raviv. The guards sometimes allowed some of the hostages to listen to Israeli radio. Ruti Munder, for example, learned while still being held hostage that her son Roi had been killed in the Hamas massacre on October 7.
Other hostages, on the other hand, were cut off from the outside world and unaware. Hannah Katzir, whose husband Rami was murdered and whose son Elad is being held hostage, only found out what had happened to them after she was freed from captivity. "As soon as she arrived, she asked: "Where is Daddy?"," said her daughter Carmit Palti-Katzir. "She didn't know that Papa had been murdered. We told her." Then she immediately asked: "Where is Elad? Why isn't he here?". "We told her that he had been kidnapped."
Despite varying conditions, it was reported that all hostages faced food shortages, with some days only having pita bread to eat. The Middle East conflicts between Israel and Hamas continued to lead to such confrontations, resulting in hostages like Keren Munder and her family being taken.
Source: www.dpa.com
