Female hostages ‘treated like slaves,’ says mother of captive

Rescued hostage Noa Argamani reported the female captives ‘Cleaned their yard, did dishes, and prepared food they couldn’t eat.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israeli women held captive in the Gaza Strip are being used by their terrorist captors as “slaves,” the mother of one of the female hostages said, citing testimony by a recently rescued female captive.

Speaking at the Mayors’ Forum on Friday, Shira Albag, whose daughter was one of the female observers taken captive by Hamas, described the conditions revealed by Noa Argamani, a 26-year-old hostage freed during an IDF rescue mission earlier this month.

“Noa said that they were slaves, and so were the observers, Liri among them.”

She added, “They cleaned their yard, did dishes, and prepared food they couldn’t eat. Liri was in a luxury villa; they let her shower after a month.”

“After 40 days, they took her down to the tunnels. It’s much worse. There is only salt water and not much food. No clothes to change into,” she added.

Shira Albag explained, “I know this from the women who returned after 50 days. Some 200 days have passed since then, and they have not seen the light of day.”

“They have not seen their mothers and fathers. The freed hostages told us that the young girls cried on the 50th day, saying they missed their mothers,” she said.

“I don’t want to imagine what they are going through now,” Albag concluded.

Dr. Itay Pessach of Sheba Hospital, who has treated the four hostages freed by the rescue mission, reported, “They have been physically and mentally abused for a long time. They are all in a state of severe malnutrition, although it does not appear that way to them.”

“I think there is a significant difference, but one cannot compare the suffering of one person to another. They all suffered from all types of abuse—physical abuse and mental abuse and for a long time,” the doctor explained.

Almog Meir Jan, one of the four rescue captives, described being freed, “When the IDF forces came to rescue us, both we and the terrorists were sleeping.”

He added, “We heard the forces and didn’t believe it at first. During the rescue they kept shooting at us from all directions, and when we got out we got stuck with the vehicle twice and it was very stressful.”