Since their release from Hamas captivity on Saturday, the four IDF lookouts have been telling their families about the long months when they were held hostage by Hamas in Gaza. "The are talking all the time about their experiences. They are telling all, perhaps out of a sense that they have to let it all out," some who have been with the girls, said.
They were aware of the events during the Oct. 7 massacre because they were abducted by the terrorists, relatively late and understood the magnitude of the atrocities. People around them said they spoke of what had transpired in the shelter that they were in, where they watched their friends slowly die or be murdered and that had a significant effect on them. They also said they used black humor to communicate and are spending the time at the Beilinson Hospital to be together surrounded by close friends and family.
Freed IDF lookouts return to Israel
(Photo: IDF)
The girls have picked up good Arabic language skills and occasionally drop a word in Arabic in their sentences.
A few of them contacted other hostages that were free, who had been with them in Gaza. All the girls have met up with friends and Liri united with her partner Nir, and was happy to see him on his feet after he was badly hurt in a terrorist ramming attack and has been in a wheel chair. After he was operated on last March, he was able to walk with the help of crutches.
Naama Levy was held hostage on her own for a long time until she was united with the other girls. Then she asked them if they were really alive. Four of the girls tried to pass the time with physical exercise despite to difficult condition they were held in and the lack of food.
The terrorists who guarded them did not allow them to hold hands or cry but they found ways to support each other. Daniella Gilboa and Karina Ariev were together most of the time and although they had known each other before their abduction the bond between them grew stronger
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Earlier deputy chief of the Israeli military's medical corps, Colonel Dr. Avi Banov said that some of the hostages released from Gaza so far during the current cease-fire had been held in Hamas tunnels for up to eight months straight, deprived of daylight and with little to no human contact.