In a post marking two years since the start of the Gaza war, Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who was freed a month ago after spending about two and a half years in captivity in Iraq, described the moment she first heard about Hamas’s October 7 massacre — and appeared to blame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the ensuing disaster. “May God bring healing to Gaza,” she wrote in Arabic on X.
“Two years ago today, I was held in my second prison by al-Hashd al-Shaabi,” Tsurkov wrote. “The guards turned up the TV so I could hear the news about the October 7 operation. From the reports on pro-Iranian channels, I thought the operation was targeting only military sites, because the presenters mentioned ‘prisoners’ (not ‘hostages’) and spoke mostly about ‘soldiers.’”
“The guards celebrated the operation, but I knew — even from the distorted information I received — that a disaster would befall Gaza and its people,” she continued. “I could not have imagined the horrifying scale and nature of the violations.”
Tsurkov, 38, also referred to remarks by Sharon Halevi, wife of former IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, who said her husband told her on October 7, “Gaza will be destroyed.” Tsurkov added, “May God bring healing to the people of Gaza — the hungry, the wounded, the exhausted hostages. They all pay a heavy price for the decisions of leaders who care only about staying in power.”
Tsurkov, an Israeli with dual Russian citizenship, was pursuing a Ph.D. at Princeton University in the U.S. when she was abducted in Baghdad on March 26, 2023, during a research trip. She was believed to have been held by the Iran-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah, though the group denied responsibility.
A day after returning to Israel, she spoke with Netanyahu from Sheba Medical Center, saying: “I went through very difficult things — torture in Iraq. It will take time to heal. I want to thank the medical teams and the Hostage Directorate for their dedicated care.” She also mentioned Gali and Ziv Berman, hostages kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7: “Yesterday was their birthday. Birthdays are the hardest days in captivity. I wish for all the hostages to return soon to their families.”