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Released Israeli hostages share testimonies of the Hamas brutality while being held captive in Gaza

Every day in captivity was 'like hell'... Each day felt 'like eternity,' hostage reveals

Sharon Aloni-Cunio, who was kidnapped with her daughters Emma and Julie and husband David Cunio in the deadly October 7 attack by Hamas is embraced by her mother Riki Alony in Yavne as she attends an interview with Reuters, (Photo: December 10, 2023. REUTERS/Eli Berlzon)

Thousands of Israelis gathered on Saturday evening in a place now called Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to listen to released Israeli hostages reveal more horrific details about their experiences while being held captive by Hamas terrorists and their accomplices in the Gaza enclave.

Margalit Mozes, 77, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz , who was abducted during the brutal attack on Oct. 7, said in a video that a terrorist kept her oxygen supply machine from her, making it impossible for her to sleep. Mozes explained to the terrorist in Arabic, “This is my oxygen,” but to no avail, she said.

In her testimony video, Adina Moshe, 72, spoke of her good friends from Kibbutz Nir Oz that he left behind as hostages in Gaza, all of them elderly, infirm and without adequate medications.

“When I was there, the food situation there deteriorated. We eventually reached the point of only eating rice,” Moshe said, appealing to Israel to do everything it can to bring the remaining hostages home. Until that happens, she said, she won’t be able to recover.

At least 38 people from the kibbutz were brutally murdered on Oct. 7, and 75 others were abducted.

Siblings Maya (21) and Itay (18) Regev reported that every day in captivity was “like hell – intense fear, zero sleep, the lack of knowledge is just scary.” Both were kidnapped from Kibbutz Re'im from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7.

Maya was released from captivity during the temporary ceasefire at the end of November after being held in Gaza for 50 days. Her brother Itay was released four days later. After her release, Maya underwent surgery on her leg due to an injury from the attack. The siblings went on to say that each day felt “like eternity” and that they missed their family and suffered from hunger and difficult conditions.

Ofelia Adit Roitman, 77, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and taken into Gaza on the floor of a tractor. She spoke on video with a large bandage around her arm and hand, an injury she suffered when she was struck with a large rifle.

“I was very scared the first two weeks,” said Roitman, who was held captive for 53 days. “I thought I was crazy because I was alone. There was barely any light. There was barely any food.”

“It reminded me of the Holocaust,” she said. She described tearing pieces of pita she was given so she would have food for the next day.

It’s been almost two weeks since the fallout of a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, when Hamas released some 105 of the 240 hostages they abducted on Oct. 7.

Sharon Aloni-Cunio, 34, was released during the ceasefire with her 3-year-old twins Yuli and Emma. Cunio likened the time she spent as a hostage to “Russian roulette,” fearing that she and her two small children would be executed.

“Every minute is critical. The conditions there are not good and the days go on forever,” she told reporters. “It’s a Russian roulette. You don’t know whether tomorrow morning, they’ll keep you alive or kill you, just because they want to or just because their backs are against the wall.”

When the ceasefire fell through, after Hamas violated the agreement, there will still 138 people, including 114 men, 20 women, and two children being held in Gaza. However, recent reports from the IDF have now confirmed the deaths of 18 hostages held by Hamas, citing new intelligence and findings obtained by troops operating in Gaza.

Aloni-Cunio said her husband David, who remains a hostage, was separated from her and their three daughters just three days before they were released.

“I am petrified I will get bad news that he is no longer alive,” Cunio said. “We are not just names on a poster. We are human beings, flesh and blood. The father of my girls is there, my partner, and many other fathers, children, mothers, brothers.”

“Every day there is crying, frustration, and anxiety. How long are we going to be here? Have they forgotten about us? Have they given up on us?”

“My children are torn,” she went on. “I am torn without my second half, the love of my life, the father of my daughters, who ask me every day, where is daddy?”

Chen Goldstein-Almog (48) and three of her four children, Agam, 17, Gal, 11, and Tal (9) were released from Hamas captivity on Nov. 26 as part of the hostage deal. Her husband Nadav and eldest daughter Yam were murdered on Oct. 7, when Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern border towns, killing 1,200 people, mostly women, children and the elderly and kidnapping 240 more.

Goldstein-Almog told the Kan public broadcaster on Monday that she met at least three hostages who told her they were sexually assaulted by their captors.

“We heard three stories first-hand, and another story that was told to us,” Goldstein-Almog said. “Things that happened a few weeks after they arrived in Gaza. They are physically injured.”

“With the way they sexually assaulted them and desecrated their bodies, they don’t know how they will cope,” she noted. “If they had been released earlier, they would have been spared. We also saw a guy who was beaten.”

“Everything must be done to get them out,” Goldstein-Almog stated.

There have been multiple reports of rape and sexual assault by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, many of them substantiated by a doctor who treated some of the hostages since their release

According to The Times of Israel, the physician said at least 10 of them – both men and women – were sexually assaulted or abused while in captivity.

The accounts of sexual assault during the Hamas rampage on Oct. 7 include horrific, sadistic acts of gang rape amid the brutal murder of over 360 people who were attending the outdoor rave music festival.

The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.

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