Adina Moshe, a 72-year-old Israeli woman held captive by Hamas militants for nearly 50 days, told an Israeli television channel that she was held for a long time in a dark and damp tunnel, where she met with Hamas' top leader in Gaza.
He said he spent time listening to a series of information provided by knowledgeable fellow hostages. Moshe was taken prisoner from Kibbutz Nir Oz on 7 October. He was freed in late November as part of a deal that freed about 100 hostages, most of them women and children, in return for a temporary ceasefire.
His remarks to Israeli television station Channel 12 came as efforts to reach a new deal that could free the 100 or so remaining hostages are underway. His account also shed new light on the difficult conditions the hostages endured while being held hostage by Hamas, when Yehya Sinwar, Hamas' top leader in Gaza, visited Moshe and a group of other hostages deep underground, he said.
“Hello. How are you? Everything okay?” Moshe said Sinwar spoke Hebrew which he learned while he was detained in Israel. He said the hostages kept their heads down and did not respond. Another visit followed three weeks later, he said.
Moshe said the militants raided the home she shared with her husband, David, who was shot in the leg. They pulled her out of the window of a safe room in her house, but another militant came back in, shooting her husband dead, she said.
He was taken to Gaza on a motorbike flanked by two armed militants. He said one of them forcibly removed his earring. The militants took all her jewelry and another took the glasses she was wearing, he said.
Moshe and a number of other hostages then marched into Hamas' extensive tunnel network, walking for five hours and descending five floors underground through dark, airless tunnels until they reached a secret room where they were told they would be released within a few minutes. future time.
“We trust them. We believe that is the first thing Israel will do,” he said. (ps/rs)