Yocheved Lifshitz, an 85-year-old Israeli woman, has shared the harrowing details of her captivity by Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization.
Lifshitz was one of the two hostages released yesterday, while her 83-year-old husband, Oded, continues to be held captive in the Gaza Strip.
Lifshitz was abducted from Israel on October 7 and was subjected to physical assault by civilians upon her arrival in Gaza. She was then relocated to an intricate network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip, where she was provided with minimal sustenance - a single meal per day. Fox News Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst reported that the hostages were given some medical and hygiene supplies by Hamas.
Sharone Lifschitz, Yocheved's daughter, relayed her mother's terrifying experiences to the media in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. She recounted her mother's description of the moment she saw Hamas militants approaching, likening it to a "swarm of people" breaching the fence. Sharone also detailed the inhumane transportation of her mother on a motorbike, with her body contorted and flanked by men.
The BBC reported Sharone's account of her mother's description of the tunnel system as a "spiderweb." Yocheved herself shared that her captors claimed to be followers of the Quran and assured her they would not harm her. She also revealed the meager diet of cheese and cucumber provided to the hostages, as reported by The Associated Press.
Before their abduction from their residence in the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border, Yocheved and Oded were known for their activism. They assisted ill Gazans in receiving medical treatment in Israel. Their grandson, Daniel Lifshitz, confirmed their lifelong commitment to human rights and peace activism to Reuters.
Daniel Lifshitz further elaborated on their humanitarian efforts, stating, "For more than a decade, they took... sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, not from the West Bank, from the Gaza Strip every week from the Erez border to the hospitals in Israel to get treatment for their disease, for cancer, for anything."
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