What They Endured -- From Darkness To Light

"If it means the world will learn the truth about what they did to us, what we endured in captivity -- I'm on board."

"Let's just say he [heir captor] had an issue with us moving around."

"If he caught one of us standing, he'd suddenly declare: 'Oh, you stood up? Fine. Now I want you sitting for a week. If you need the bathroom -- crawl."

"I don't want to see you on your feet."

"We were itching to retaliate, but we suppressed it, detaching ourselves emotionally."

Almog Meir Jan

"But we'd wear him down after about four days. We did our best to comply."

"We'd win him over by playing the role of obedient children."

Shlomi Ziv

"For those who've returned, the most crucial mission now is saving lives."

"They carry the weight of responsibility for those they had to leave behind."

Susie Ozsinay Aranya, co-project lead, Government Press Office

Shlomi Ziv and Almog Meir Jan, Photo Efrat Eshel

 

These are the fortunate unfortunates. Their misfortune was to have been taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Their good fortune was to have been among those of the hostages that the Operation Arnon rescue by the IDF released in June, after 246 days of captivity in Gaza. Two of the hostages have agreed to relive the details of their captivity by revealing details seared into their psyches by their experiences at the hands of their Hamas captors.

Their testimony in recounting their ordeal before they were released will form part of a project of documentation for posterity of returned hostages and their families; a project led by Israel's Government Press Office. That same rescue, Operation Arnon, freed other survivors of the Hamas hostage-taking, Andrey Kozlov and Noa Argamani, held separately from Kozlov, Shlomo Ziv and Almog Meir Jan. 

 

The two men described, among other tormenting punishments, what they speak of as 'creative' assaults on human dignity.

 

Families of hostages march into Gaza during the protest on August 29, 2024 (Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

“I saw Yaya [Yaakov Tal her husband] outside the house, sitting on his knees and two terrorists were holding him by his sides. He was with his back [to] me. They were holding weapons. And he yelled at me, 'I'm going to die!'”

“And I'm on a Vespa and I told him 'Don't resist'. One [of the terrorists] who was sitting [on the Vespa] was holding a knife to my neck. They brought me down from the Vespa, someone hit me on the head. I almost lost consciousness.”

Merav Tal, October 7 hostage

 

“There were shouts of ‘Jew, Jew’ in Arabic. They broke in [to the bomb shelter] screaming and shooting, bullet marks on the door. We understood my husband was shot. He was lying on the floor with his hands up. This was all in front of our eyes.”

“And then I ran to check on Yam [her oldest daughter], and I see that she was shot in the face. I just saw this for a few seconds, it was a shocking sight. Something got opened right here and blood was coming out of her head. Such a convulsion, she was half passed out. I was simply stunned, in shock, I was asking myself: 'Is what I'm seeing right now really happening?'” 

Chen Goldstein-Almog, abducted from Kfar Aza with her three children

In all, 25 former hostages of various ages have agreed to share their personal experiences since their return, to be part of the project. As well, 21 family members of those still in captivity will also add to the record-keeping. An estimated 100 hostages of the 250 taken into Gaza as pawns for future prisoner exchanges, remain in Gaza. Israeli authorities believe that some 70 of those prisoners remain yet alive. Their numbers are diminishing, murdered by their captors.

"Since the Holocaust until October 7, the Jewish people have not experienced such systematic slaughter and murderous acts on such a scale. On Holocaust Memorial Day this year, amid severe antisemitic events worldwide, we will show testimonies of the atrocities committed against women, men, the elderly, and children in captivity in the Gaza Strip to foreign journalists from around the world." 

"Soon, the Public Diplomacy Directorate will release the testimonies of the national project to the media to serve the ongoing campaign against the dehumanization and delegitimization of the State of Israel."

Nitzan Chen, director of the GPO

Even the videoed documented evidence of the Hamas orgy of sadistic savagery in mutilating, raping, burning families alive, hunting down and taking captive young people at the Nova Music Festival, slaughtering hundreds in farming villages close to the Gaza border, has failed to fully convince the international community that Israelis had been forced to undergo a massive atrocity by Palestinian terrorists. Personal witness testimony, along with the incriminating videos have been insufficient to convince an uncaring United Nations and skeptic national leaders of the scale of the horror. 

Rally in Jerusalem marks six months of captivity

(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)