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One of the two elderly Israeli hostages released by Hamas terrorists late Monday turned back to wish peace for her captors — who she said were “friendly in their own way” even though they put her “through hell.”
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was seen turning back to one of the masked gunmen handing her to Red Cross employees at Gazah’s Rafah Crossing more than two weeks after she was abducted during a slaughter at her kibbutz, beaten and then taken through a “spiderweb” of tunnels by her captors.
Video of the exchange showed her reaching out her hand and wishing him “shalom,” a Hebrew word meaning “peace” often also used to say goodbye.
Asked at a press conference Tuesday why she took the terrorist’s hand, Lifshitz generously claimed that “they were gentle with us, our needs were supplied” in captivity — despite describing the horrors she was put through when she was beaten and taken to Gaza.
“They were friendly in their way,” she said.
“They made sure that we eat the food they ate: white cheese and cucumbers — that was the meal for the whole day.”
But Lifshitz said she’ll long be tormented by the horrors she experienced.
“I’ve been through hell,” she said from a wheelchair at the Tel Aviv hospital where she is recovering.
“They were prepared for this, they were prepared for a very long time,” Lifshitz said of the savage terror group.
“We never thought we’d reach such a state,” Lifshitz, who was born in Israel in 1938, said of what she experienced on Oct. 7.
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She told how a “swarm” of terrorists broke through a 2.5 billion-shekel (approximately $615 million) security gate and “stormed our homes.”
“They went berserk in our kibbutz,” she recalled.
“They hit people,” Lifshitz recounted at the press conference. “They did not care about kidnapping [the] elderly and children. It was extremely painful.”
Lifshitz said she was hauled onto a motorcycle, with her head on one side and her legs hanging off the other.
As they traveled, Lifshitz said, the terrorists beat her with a stick.
“When I was on the bike, my legs were on one side and the rest of my body on the other side. The young men hit me on the way,” she said.
“They didn’t break my limbs, but it was extremely painful for me.”
Once they arrived at the vast tunnel network Hamas uses in Gaza, Lifshitz said, they walked for a few kilometers on the wet ground before they arrived at a large hall where about 25 other hostages were being held.
After a few hours, five of them from the kibbutz were brought to a separate room with a guard standing outside.
“When we got there, they told us they believe in the Quran and will give us the same conditions they have,” Lifshitz said, noting that a doctor came every two to three days to check on the hostages, and a paramedic was also on the scene to provide them with medicine — and to make sure they did not get an infection from their injuries.
“They cleaned the toilets, not us,” she said. “They were afraid of contagion.”
She said the terrorists tried to strike up conversations with them about the political situation.
“We told [them], ‘No politics,’ ” Lifshitz said.
“They took good care of the wounded,” the elderly woman added.
She said she keeps “having those images in my mind.”
Lifshitz was finally released from captivity Monday night, along with her neighbor Nurit Cooper, 79.
Some Israelis were horrified that some of Lifshitz’s comments appeared to paint her terrorist captives in anything less than a heinous light.
Former Israeli minister and army spokesman Nachman Shai called her interview “a mortifying event, with no organization, no guiding hand.
“She must be tired. They might have waited a little. I don’t understand if she was pre-briefed or not,” he told the Washington Post.
But a more sympathetic observer noted to the outlet that “her husband is held captive by them, and it’s unclear whether they threatened to kill him.”
Abu Ubaiba, a military spokesman from Al-Qassam Brigades that operates in the West Bank, claimed Hamas was willingly releasing the two women despite Israel’s refusal to stop its airstrikes against the terrorist group.
“We have decided to release them for compelling humanitarian and satisfactory reasons despite the occupation committing more than 8 violations of the procedures that were agreed upon with the mediator brothers that the occupation would adhere to during this day to complete the handover process,” the spokesman said on Telegram.
The elderly women were later seen in footage released by Hamas being escorted to the border, with the terrorists apparently offering them water.
In another clip, Yocheved can be seen crawling out the back of a white truck, before walking toward an ambulance with the help of two officials.
Meanwhile, Nurit is seen lying down and wheeled in an ambulance stretcher.
Both women appeared to be without obvious physical injuries as they were checked and monitored by Red Cross staff.
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