Freed Israeli hostage says Hamas treated her well after initial violence

An elderly Israeli hostage who was released by Hamas overnight said she had been beaten by militants as she was taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, but was then treated well during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was one of two women freed late on Monday, leaving around 220 hostages still in the hands of Hamas.

“I’ve been through hell, we didn’t think or know we would get to this situation,” she told reporters, seated in a wheelchair outside the Tel Aviv hospital where she was taken following her release.

Looking frail, Lifshitz said she had been put on a motorbike and driven from her kibbutz into nearby Gaza.

“When I was on the bike, my head was on one side and the rest of my body on the other side. The young men hit me on the way. They didn’t break my ribs but it was painful and I had difficulty breathing.”

Once in Gaza, she said her captors took her into tunnels that she compared to a spider’s web, and treated her well.

Lifshitz said a doctor had visited her and made sure she and other hostages received the same sort of medicines they had been taking in Israel.

She said the Israeli military had not taken the threat of Hamas seriously enough, and that the costly security fence meant to keep militants out “didn’t help at all”.