Children taken hostage by Hamas were “marked” by their captors with burns from searing-hot motorcycle exhaust pipes, family of recently released child hostages have revealed.
“They told us stories about what they went through inside Gaza. The stories are horrible,” said Yaniv Yaakov, the uncle of 12-year-old Yagil and 16-year-old Or, two boys freed this week as part of Israel’s ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“Each child that was taken by Hamas was taken on a motorbike and they took every child, took his leg and put it on the exhaust of that motorbike, so they have a burn so they will be marked if they run, if they escape, so they can find them,” Yaakov said during an interview, according to the Times of Israel.
His nephews and other children held captive by the terrorists were also frequently moved from place to place, and drugged to keep them complacent.
“They were treated so bad, but at least they are with us,” he said.
Yagil and Or’s account was just one of many emerging from relatives of children taken hostage by Hamas during their bloody October 7 attack on Israel. Of the more than 200 hostages, about 40 are believed to be children. At least 32 kids have been released so far.
The youngest, 10-month-old Kfir Bibas, died in Hamas captivity along with his mother and 4-year-old brother. The terror group claimed they were killed by Israeli shelling.
Twelve-year-old Eitan Yahalomi was beaten by a mob of Gazan citizens when he was first carried across the border from Israel, his aunt Deborah Cohen said, according to Reuters.
Later, the terrorists forced him to watch graphic footage of their massacres in Israel, Cohen said.
“Every time a child cried there, they threatened them with a weapon to make them be quiet. Once they got to Gaza, all the civilians, everyone was hitting them,” she said in an interview with French outlet BFM TV.
“We’re talking about a child 12 years old,” she added.
Emily Hand, a 9-year-old who spent her captivity dodging between houses in Gaza with her captors to avoid shelling, has only spoken in whispers since her return after they conditioned her not to make noise.
“I had to put my ear close to her mouth to hear. In captivity, she was told not to make any noise. You can see the terror in her eyes,” her father, Thomas Hand, told CNN after her recent release.
Another girl held with Emily, 13-year-old Hila Rotem Shoshani, is also speaking only in a hushed voice, according to her family.
Many children reported being kept underground in Hamas’ elaborate tunnel system throughout the duration of their captivity, where they subsisted on desperately small rations of rice and pita bread.
The ceasefire deal started on November 24 after Hamas agreed to release 50 hostages in return for a four-day truce and the release of 150 prisoners.
Hamas was given the option to extend the ceasefire another day for every 10 additional hostages released.
Over 100 hostages have since been released as the truce is scheduled to lift at 7 a.m. local time Friday, unless another deal can be reached.
No comments:
Post a Comment