The last 20 living hostages held by Hamas have revealed, for the first time, how the terror group made them suffer for the last two years.
Just over two years ago, Hamas launched a deadly incursion into Israel and killed around 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.
Though most of the 251 who were kidnapped have been returned, dead or alive, the last 20 living hostages were only handed back to Israel yesterday, following the signing of a Gaza peace deal over the weekend.
But many of the hostages have revealed they were severely isolated, threatened with weapons and starved to near-death during their time in the tunnels.
Many reported that their cruel Hamas captors ate in front of them as they withered away from hunger.
In one of the worst cases, hostage Avinatan Or, 32, was held in near-total isolation for two years, not meeting another kidnapped person until he was released on Monday.
Avinatan, who was kidnapped alongside his girlfriend Noa Argamani, 28, from the Nova Festival, was also severely starved. Local media reported that he had lost up to 40% of his body weight.
He was also not given any news, only being told that his girlfriend had been freed on Monday.
Avinatan and Noa were reunited yesterday, sharing a kiss and embracing.
Similarly, hostage Elkana Bohbot, 36, is reported to have spent most of the two years he was held by Hamas chained up in a dark and dingy tunnel where he lost all sense of time.
Channel 12 reported that Elkana was somehow able to remember his wedding anniversary and insisted to his captors that he be allowed to shower on that day.
Though the Hamas terrorists who were holding him initially refused, they relented and allowed him to clean himself.
Kidnapped twins Gali and Ziv Berman, both 28, were separated and cut off from the rest of the world by Hamas.
Though they were held in the same area, neither knew for certain whether the other was alive.
It was only when they embraced for the first time in over two years on Monday that they knew for sure.
Both went through periods of starvation. Some of their captors reportedly spoke to them in Hebrew.
Matan Angrest, a now-22-year-old soldier who was taken from his tank in southern Israel, experienced ‘very severe torture’ during his first few months as a hostage, according to his mother Anat.
She told local media that he ‘remembers being beaten so badly that he lost consciousness’.
Anat added: ‘They covered him with black sacks and dragged him away.’
He was ‘alone for a long period, under special guard’, adding that the young soldier told he he refused to break for the ‘monsters’ who kept him under lock and key.
Anat said he suffered ‘severe psychological warfare’, with Hamas members telling her son ‘that [Israelis] gave up on them, that [Hamas] was going to conquer the country, that they are planning the next October 7’.
She added: ‘He recalled the heavy IDF bombardments, planes flying above their heads…walls falling next to them, many times finding himself amid dust under the rubble, trying to get above ground and survive. Very complicated situations’.
The terrorists who held him also lied to him, claiming his Holocaust survivor grandparents were dead.
But despite all of this, he is in a ‘reasonable state, at least, mentally’.
Guy Gilboa-Dalal, the 24-year-old who was taken from the Nova Festival, told local media he had been held with his childhood friend Evyatar David in a Hamas tunnel until just last month.
He said: ‘Then they took him for a ride in a vehicle around Gaza, and did not bring him back to the tunnel with Evyatar, but put him in a tunnel in Gaza City with Alon Ohel’.
Guy revealed he had been force-fed, adding that he believed his captors were doing this after the video of an emaciated Evyatar being made to dig his own grave sparked international outrage.
The parents of Alon said they used him as a human shield at various points, telling Channel 12: ‘About 40 days ago, they suddenly moved him to another tunnel in central Gaza.
‘The IDF had announced an operation to capture the city, and they moved him to use him as a human shield’.
Evyatar David, who was the subject of an infamous video in which he was made to dig his own grave while Hamas members filmed his emaciated body, somehow managed to keep hope despite being a hostage for two years.
His father Avishai said: ‘He found various ways to pass the time. He had great hope – he felt that the end was near’.
Omri Miran, 48, was moved to nearly two-dozen locations during his time as a hostage, being held both above and below ground
His brother, Nadav, said: ‘Sometimes he would cook food for his captors, and they loved his cooking.
‘He knew exactly what the date was and roughly what day it was. He knew exactly how many days he was in captivity. They spent most of their days playing cards with their captors’.
Ariel Cunio and Rom Braslavski, both of whom were handed back to Israel on Monday, said they had been isolated from the rest of the world during their time as hostages.
Cunio was only made aware that his kidnapped relatives David and partner Arbel Yehoud, were alive.
David was also freed on Monday, while Arbel was freed around a year ago.
US President Donald Trump hailed a ‘tremendous day for the Middle East’ as he and regional leaders signed a declaration meant to cement a ceasefire in Gaza, hours after Israel and Hamas exchanged hostages and prisoners.
Trump made a lightning visit to Israel, where he lauded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an address to parliament, before flying to Egypt for a Gaza summit where he and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey signed the declaration on Monday as guarantors to the ceasefire deal.
‘This is a tremendous day for the world, it’s a tremendous day for the Middle East,’ Trump said as more than two dozen world leaders sat down to talk in the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
He later declared that the assembled leaders had ‘achieved what everybody said was impossible’.
‘At long last, we have peace in the Middle East,’ Trump said in a speech.
According to the declaration, the signatories pledged to ‘pursue a comprehensive vision of peace, security and shared prosperity in the region’, and also welcomed ‘the progress achieved in establishing comprehensive and durable peace arrangements in the Gaza Strip’.
But the statement – released in full on Monday night by the White House – was vague about the path ahead for peace between Israel and its neighbours, including the Palestinians, making no mention of a one- or two-state solution.
‘We’re talking about rebuilding Gaza. I’m not talking about single state or double state or two state,’ Trump told reporters en route back to the White House.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the Gaza deal ‘closes a painful chapter in human history’ and sets the stage for a two-state solution.
As part of Trump’s plan to end the Gaza war, Hamas on Monday freed the last 20 surviving hostages it held after two years of captivity in Gaza.
In exchange, Israel released 1,968 mostly Palestinian prisoners held in its jails, its prison service said.
‘For so many families across this land, it has been years since you’ve known a single day of true peace,’ Trump told Israel’s parliament, where he received a standing ovation.
‘Not only for Israelis, but also for Palestinians and for many others, the long and painful nightmare is finally over.’
