TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli hostage freed by way of Hamas mentioned in an interview that she used to be to begin with fed neatly in captivity till stipulations worsened and other people become hungry. She used to be saved in a “suffocating” room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for just about 50 days.In one of the vital first interviews with a freed hostage, 78-year-old Ruti Munder instructed Israel’s Channel 13 tv that she spent the whole lot of her time along with her daughter, Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri, who celebrated his 9th birthday in captivity. Her account, broadcast Monday, provides to the trickle of details about the revel in of captives held in Gaza.Munder used to be snatched Oct. 7 from her house in Nir Ounces, a kibbutz in southern Israel. Her husband, Avraham, additionally 78, used to be taken hostage too and stays in Gaza. Her son used to be killed within the assault.
To start with, they ate “rooster with rice, all varieties of canned meals and cheese,” Munder instructed Channel 13. “We had been OK.”
They got tea within the morning and night time, and the youngsters got candies. However the menu modified when “the industrial state of affairs used to be no longer excellent, and other people had been hungry.”
Israel has maintained a good siege on Gaza for the reason that conflict erupted, resulting in shortages of meals, gas and different basic things.Munder, who used to be freed Friday, returned in excellent bodily situation, like maximum different captives. However one of the vital launched hostages, an 84-year-old girl, has been hospitalized in life-threatening situation after no longer receiving right kind care in captivity, docs mentioned. Every other freed captive wanted surgical treatment.Freed hostages have most commonly saved out of the general public eye since their go back. Any information about their ordeal have come thru kinfolk, who’ve no longer printed a lot.
Munder, confirming accounts from kinfolk of alternative freed captives, mentioned they slept on plastic chairs. She mentioned she coated herself with a sheet however that no longer all captives had one.Boys who had been there would keep up past due chatting, whilst one of the most women would cry, she mentioned. Some boys slept at the flooring.She mentioned she would get up past due to lend a hand go the time. The room the place she used to be held used to be “suffocating,” and the captives had been averted from opening the blinds, however she controlled to crack open a window.“It used to be very tricky,” she mentioned.Munder’s account emerged as Israel and Hamas agreed to increase their truce. The 2 aspects were exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners underneath a cease-fire deal that has paused the preventing. The deal additionally comprises an building up in assist to Gaza.
Israel declared conflict after the Islamic militant crew’s cross-border assault Oct. 7 wherein 1,200 other people had been killed and 240 others taken hostage. An Israeli offensive has left over 13,000 Palestinians lifeless, consistent with well being government within the Hamas-run territory.Munder mentioned that on Oct. 7, she used to be placed on a automobile along with her circle of relatives and pushed into Gaza. A militant draped over them a blanket her grandson had carried from house, which she mentioned used to be intended to stop them from seeing the militants round them. Whilst in captivity, she discovered from a Hamas militant who listened to the radio that her son used to be killed, consistent with the Channel 13 document.Nonetheless, she mentioned, she held out that hope she could be freed.“I used to be constructive. I understood that if we got here right here, then we’d be launched. I understood that if we had been alive — they killed whoever they sought after to in Nir Ounces.”Two Israeli TV stations, Channels 12 and 13, reported that Hamas’ best chief in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, visited the hostages in a tunnel and confident them they wouldn’t be harmed.
“You’re most secure right here. Not anything will occur to you,” he used to be quoted as pronouncing within the equivalent experiences, which didn’t expose the supply of the account.This spherical of releases has observed most commonly ladies and youngsters freed. They have got been present process bodily and mental assessments at Israeli hospitals sooner than returning house.Mirit Regev, whose 21-year-old daughter, Maya, used to be freed Sunday, instructed Israeli public broadcaster Kan that the circle of relatives has been recommended to “go back the facility to her” of their interactions by way of at all times asking her for permission sooner than issues happen, corresponding to leaving the room. Regev’s 18-year-old son, Itai, remains to be being held by way of Hamas.Itai Pessach, director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Kids’s Sanatorium at Sheba Clinical Middle, the place lots of the launched kids were handled, mentioned he felt some optimism since the hostages had been bodily getting better. However he mentioned scientific team of workers had heard “very tricky and complicated tales from their time in Hamas captivity,” with out elaborating.“We take into account that although they may appear bodily bettering, there’s an overly, very lengthy option to move sooner than they’re healed,” he mentioned.
In a separate interview, the aunt of a 25-year-old Israeli-Russian hostage who used to be launched Sunday from Gaza mentioned her nephew fled his captors and concealed inside Gaza for a couple of days sooner than being recaptured.“He mentioned he used to be taken by way of terrorists, and so they introduced him right into a development. However the development used to be destroyed (by way of Israeli bombing), and he used to be ready to escape,” Yelena Magid, the aunt of Roni Krivoi, instructed Kan radio on Monday. “He used to be looking to get to the border, however I believe as a result of he didn’t have the sources to understand the place he used to be and which path to escape, he had some bother.”He instructed her in a telephone dialog he used to be ready to cover himself for round 4 days sooner than Palestinians in Gaza came upon him, she added.“Something that gave us hope from the beginning is that he’s a boy who’s at all times smiling, and he can determine issues out in any state of affairs,” Magid mentioned.Israeli media aired video Monday of Ori Megidish, an Israeli soldier who used to be taken captive, then freed by way of the army past due remaining month. She mentioned she used to be glad and doing neatly and needed all of the captives would go back house.“I’m satisfied to have my existence again,” she mentioned.___AP journalist Melanie Lidman contributed to this document.
