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Hostages starved in captivity, feared lynching during transfer

Until the last moment we weren’t sure, we thought they would lynch us on the way to Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

Amid the myriad images of tearful reunions, released hostages also spoke of meager food rations and fear of attacks.

Family members of former captives in Gaza spoke to Channel 12 about their harrowing experiences.

Although there were no reports as of yet about torture or physical abuse, the liberated captives spoke of living on extremely meager rations, especially in the last two weeks of their captivity.

Often, they weren’t given prepared food, but were forced to cook for themselves and the children they were watching, while being provided with very limited supplies, leaving them in a weakened physical condition.

In some cases, they had to live on only a single pita per day, or small amounts of rice.

Merav Mor Munder, a cousin of Keren Munder who was released Friday told Channel 12, “There were days when there were no supplies, so they only ate pita bread. They were not tortured, but there were days when they barely had any food, in the last few days they only ate very little rice.”

Captives in Gaza were occasionally allowed to listen to the radio, and it was on a news broadcast that Hannah Katzir found out that her son was murdered. It wasn’t until her release that she was informed her husband was also a hostage in Gaza.

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News of their liberation wasn’t the end of their fears. While they were being transported from Gaza to Egypt, hostages reported crowds throwing stones at the vehicles.

“Until the last moment we weren’t sure, we thought they would lynch us on the way to Israel,” one freed hostage said.

Representatives of the Red Cross brought the freed hostages from Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula through the Rafah border crossing before flying to Hatzerim Airbase near Beersheva in southern Israel.

Maya Regev, 21, the first of the hostages to be released from the Nova musical festival in Re’im will need several surgeries on her badly broker leg, but is expected to have a “full recovery.”

Dr. Shlomi Kodesh, director of Soroka Hospital said, “We support her and her family and wish for the return of all the hostages.”