Amid massacres and kidnappings, an 85-year-old Israeli grandmother kidnapped and freed by Hamas terrorists has revealed what it was like to be held in the terrifying maze of tunnels beneath Gaza.
Yocheved Lifshitz, a resident of the kibbutz and one of approximately 220 hostages violently taken by Hamas on October 7, endured two nightmarish weeks as a prisoner in what she called a “web” of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip before being released. Monday night along with another woman. , Nurit Cooper, 79 years old.
“I’ve been through hell,” Lifshitz said, almost in a whisper, while speaking to reporters at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital.
“They became rampant in our kibbutz,” he said of the terrorists who invaded his home at Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel.
“They blew up the electronic fence, that special fence that cost $2.5 billion to build but didn’t help at all,” Lifshitz added.
After hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, one of approximately 220 people violently taken by Hamas on October 7, was released, she and experts reveal what the situation is like in the tunnels where terrorists are holding hostages.
“The masses attacked our homes. They beat people, took some hostages. “They didn’t distinguish between young and old, it was very painful.”
She described how the kidnappers grabbed her and put her on a motorcycle before speeding away with her through thick bushes.
Lifshitz said she was hit in the ribs with sticks during the trip: “The young men hit me on the way. My ribs were not broken but it hurt and I had difficulty breathing.”
A Palestinian worker inside a smuggling tunnel in Rafah, on the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip.AP
The terrorists also stole his watch and jewelry on the way to the hideout.
“They took us to the entrance to the tunnels. “We reached the tunnel and walked for miles on wet dirt,” he added.
“There is a giant system of tunnels, like spider webs.”
Israeli soldiers investigate a tunnel discovered in a house under a stove in Rafah, near the border between the Gaza Strip and the border with Egypt.POOL/AFP via Getty Images
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Hamas’ vast array of tunnels comprises labyrinthine, narrow and congested passages with little oxygen.
Military experts told NBC News that Israel is at a disadvantage when it comes to confronting Hamas underground, where Israel’s technological superiority cannot help them.
“It’s like being underwater,” said retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz, who led U.S. security coordination in Israel and the Palestinian Authority from 2019 to 2021.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 and held captive in Hamas’s underground tunnels for two weeks until she was released on Monday. Getty Images
“I’ve been in tunnels, and once you go down, you quickly lose all sense of direction and all sense of time,” said Daphné Richemond-Barak, an assistant professor at Israel’s Reichman University, who founded the International Working Group on Underground Warfare. . and she is considered to have written the most complete book on the subject.
“The consensus is that they really only send their soldiers into the tunnel as a last resort, perhaps to capture hostages.”
According to a 2016 report in the journal Geopolitics, the tunnels, used to move equipment and ammunition, are typically about six and a half feet high and about a foot wide.
Yocheved Lifshitz was released but her husband, Oded, remains a Hamas captive.via REUTERS
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Some are said to be wired for electricity and communications.
Much was made of photographs showing Lifshitz shaking hands with a Hamas gunman and appearing to say “Shalom” to him moments before being handed over to International Red Cross officials at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
But Lifshitz, with the help of her daughter Sharone, who translated some of what the older woman said during the news conference, admitted that the captors took good care of the hostages, making sure they were well fed and medically supervised.
Some of the tunnels are six and a half feet high, while others, like this one in Rafah, are smaller.AP
“When we got there, they told us that they believed in the Koran, that they would not harm us and that we would live in the same conditions as them in the tunnels,” Lifshitz said.
“We started walking through the tunnels, [where] The earth is moist and everything is always damp and wet. We arrived at a room with 25 people inside; After two or three hours they separated five people from my kibbutz, Nir Oz. “They watched us closely.”
The militants also ensured that the hostages received medical care and that medicines were delivered to those who needed them, he said.
Israeli soldiers have a special “Tunnel Unit” team to investigate and dismantle Hamas tunnels like the one above.Getty Images
“They took care of the wounded very well,” added the old woman.
“We lay on mattresses and they made sure everything was hygienic,” Lifshitaz said.
“They made sure we didn’t get sick and we had a doctor with us every two or three days. They divided us into groups according to the place of residence, they took care of all our needs. We must admit that they kept us very clean. “They made sure we ate, we ate the same thing they did: pita bread with white cheese, processed cheese and cucumber.”
Israeli soldier emerging from a tunnel connecting Gaza and southern Israel, back in 2014. Getty Images
He explained that a paramedic was on site to hand out medication and make sure the wounds did not become infected.
“They cleaned the bathrooms, not us,” Lifshitz said.
“They were afraid of contagion.”
Israeli soldiers investigate a tunnel in a private Palestinian home.IDF/AFP via Getty Images
But when their captors tried to talk about the war, the hostages apparently drew a line.
“We told [them]”There is no politics,” Lifshitz said.
Lifshitz criticized the way the Israeli government handled the October 7 surprise attack.
Charred personal items lie inside Kibbutz Nir Oz, along the border with the Gaza Strip, where Lifshitz and some of his relatives lived. AFP via Getty Images
He said residents of his kibbutz suffered immeasurable harm due to Israel’s alleged intelligence failure.
“We were the government’s scapegoats,” he said, referring to a September incident in the country’s southern region that foreshadowed the October attack.
“The government abandoned us three weeks earlier. [The Hamas] He educated us, so to speak. Masses came to the roads, they set fire to our fields, they sent balloons that would cause fires in our fields. The IDF did not take it seriously,” Lifshitz said.
Yocheved Lifshitz speaks to journalists with his daughter Sharone Lifshitz (left) outside Ichilov hospital after his release from the clutches of Hamas terrorists on Monday.Getty Images
“Suddenly on Saturday morning [Oct. 7] When everything was quiet, they bombed us; then swarms invaded the expensive fence and opened the gates of the kibbutz. “It was very unpleasant.”
At that, Lishitz’s family was amazed that she was returned to them.
“It is incredible that Grandma Yukka, who is like a mother to me, has returned from Hamas prisoners,” her grandson Daniel Lifshitz wrote on Facebook.
Nurit Cooper, 79, was released along with Lifshitz after two weeks of being held hostage by Hamas terrorists.
“I love this brave woman very much. A great heroine.”
But Lifshitz’s reunion with her relatives was not entirely happy because her husband, who was kidnapped along with her, remains hostage, along with more than 200 other people, according to Israeli authorities.
Her son, Arnon Lifshitz, told Walla, an Israeli news site, that his mother had been kept “along with 50 or 60 other people in the same place. If everyone is in the same situation, there is room for optimism. She and [my] “My father separated, he was in another place and we hope that he too will return healthy as soon as possible.”
Judith Tai Raanan (right) and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, American citizens who were taken hostage by Palestinian Hamas militants, were released on October 20 via REUTERS.
The worst attack on Israel in 50 years: how we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip more than three decades after seizing the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins the Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fire rockets at the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches largest attack on Israel in 50 years.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, more than 4,200 wounded and at least 100 taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli cities. .
Hamas terrorists were seen taking women hostage and parading them down the street in gruesome videos.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and promised that Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials report that at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured.
Hostages Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natali, 17, were also freed by Hamas on Friday.
The American mother and daughter were visiting Israel to celebrate Judith’s mother’s 85th birthday when they were kidnapped.
According to a report by Israeli public broadcaster Kan, a third of Nir Oz’s 400 residents are believed to have been kidnapped or killed in the attack.
The Israeli government estimates that Hamas killed about 1,400 people on October 7.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn