Young ex-Hamas hostages only "shadows of children"
Children who were held captive by the radical Islamic group Hamas are being treated in Israeli children's hospitals. The young patients tell pediatrician Efrat Bron-Harlev and her colleagues in Tel Aviv about the abuse they suffered in captivity. This leaves deep scars.
According to a pediatrician, Israeli children and adolescents only looked like "shadows of children" immediately after their release from Hamas hostage-taking. Efrat Bron-Harlev, head of the Schneider Children's Hospital near Tel Aviv, said that the young people released were initially very intimidated. During their first time in hospital, many of them barely spoke or only whispered. "One boy asked if he could look out of the window," said Bron-Harlev. Many had not been able to shower for weeks while they were held hostage. "If they were lucky, they could wash themselves with cold water from a bucket," she said.
Doctors reported mistreatment by the hostage-takers, and many children and young people were severely malnourished. Some of them had been drugged. "We saw the first smiles of many of these children after 24 or 48 hours," said Bron-Harlev. This gave the doctors hope. "Children are incredibly strong," she said. She therefore hoped that they would be able to recover from their terrible experiences in the long term.
After the first smile, many questions came from the children and many stories from their time as hostages. "Many stories that you can hardly imagine," says Bron-Harlev. One three-year-old girl told of a "red man" she had seen. It was an acquaintance covered in blood. The Hamas kidnappers told a 13-year-old girl that nobody was looking for her and nobody cared about her. She now had to regain trust in her parents.
The medical team asked themselves how they could ensure "that this memory will make them better and stronger people in 40 or 50 years' time, and that it will not be a memory that destroys their lives". On October 7, terrorists from Hamas and other extremist groups killed more than 1,200 people in Israel and abducted around 240 hostages. A total of 36 children and young people have been released and treated so far, said Bron-Harlev. "What these children have been through is unimaginable," she added. They must now be helped to "recover from this catastrophe".
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Following their release from Hamas's hostage-taking, many of these Israeli children and adolescents required extended treatment in Tel Aviv's children's hospitals to recover from the physical and emotional trauma they endured. Despite the severe mistreatment they experienced, the resilience of children was evident as they gradually regained their strength and started to smile again, providing hope to their medical team.
Source: www.ntv.de
