Freed Hamas Parents Hostage Give Details of the Test

Parents of four young Israeli Israeli hostages, released from Hamas's captivity in Gaza, told the BBC about how their daughters were abused, including being starved, intimidated and threatened by armed men and forced to cook and clean.

They told how the hostages were kept in underground tunnels and buildings witnesses of physical violence and were made to participate in Hamas's propaganda videos, including in one case, falsifying their own death.

They said that women find strength by sharing stories, drawing and keeping a diary.

None of the women have interviewed in the media after their release, and their parents tell them that the full details of what they have endured are still appearing. There are also things that they cannot talk about because of fears that he can still put the hostages in gas at risk.

Three of the four women whose parents talked to the BBC were female soldiers abducted by Hamas by the army of Nazl Oz near Gaza on October 7, 2023.

The hostage's access to food and their treatment by male guards varies for the 15 months in which they were detained, their parents said. They were moved between places, rarely seeing sunlight.

“It was very different between the places she went – it could be a good tunnel, it could be a very bad tunnel. It could be a good house or a bad house,” says Agam Berger's father, 20 years old, a soldier who was in Nosal Oz.

Some of the places had good food, some had “very bad food … They just tried to survive,” said Shlomi Berger.

“They (and their abductors) had to escape from one place to another because they were in a war zone. It was very dangerous to be there,” said Orly Gilboa, whose daughter Daniela was also abducted from the base.

When Daniela was looking at Release of three male hostages last week “Who came out thin and enchanted,” she told her mother, “If I had been released two months ago, I probably would look like them.”

“She got bigger, she weakened a lot of her weight during his captivity. But in the last two months, they have been given a lot of food to gain weight,” says Gi Gilboa.

Other parents also report significant weight loss. Maimra's daughter Leshem Gon was taken from Hamas from the Nova Music Festival.

The 24 -year -old Roma was released during the first week of fire termination in January – she had lost “20% of her body weight,” her mother says.

G -ja Gilboa says that the most difficult thing she has endured is to see a video that suggests that her daughter has been killed. Her abductors poured into her, so she seemed to be covered with a plaster, as if he were killed in an Israeli military strike.

“I think everyone who saw him believed it, but I just told myself it couldn't be,” she told the BBC.

The war was triggered by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, when artillerymen killed about 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage.

Since then, more than 48 230 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the territory. About two -thirds of gas buildings have been destroyed or damaged, the UN estimates.

So far, 16 Israeli and five Thai hostages have been exchanged for more than 600 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel on the fire termination deal, which began on January 19th.

Berger says his daughter Agam was threatened by her abductors and witnessed physical violence while he was captured.

“Sometimes other hostages were tortured before her eyes,” he says, referring to an attack on Amit Susanna, a former hostage who was released in November 2023.

Berger tells him that his daughter told him how they were constantly watched by armed men: “They play all the time with their weapons and their hand grenades.”

He says that male captives were treated with “great disrespect”, including their forcing to clean and prepare food.

“It really bothers her. She is a girl that if she has something to say, she will say it. She is not shy. And sometimes she told them what she thought of them and their behavior,” he says.

He added that in a small act of resistance, Agam refused to do all kinds of jobs on Saturday, the Jewish day of vacation. The men who detained her accepted this.

Besides, they were not allowed to speak loudly.

“When Agam came (back to Israel), she wanted to speak all the time … After a day she had no voice because she had spoken so much,” says G -N Berger.

Yoni Levy, whose daughter Naama, 20, is also taken from the Army base, says she was sometimes kept in places where she has played television or radio.

Once, Naama saw his father talking on television. “It gave her a lot of hope and optimism … that no one will forget her and we will do everything we need to get her out of this hell.”

He says that Hamas's attack on the Army base was “much more traumatic than the captivity itself.”

“It may change, but at this stage we think this is the most tragic day she talks about,” says G -N Levy.

Naama's staff this day show that her and other female soldiers in bloody clothing, surrounded by armed men in a room at the base, before being forced into a vehicle and taken to gas.

The three female soldiers whose parents talked to the BBC are among the five of the unarmed military unit of all women in Nahal Oz Freed in the first round of fire termination.

The members of the Hebrew unit as Tatzpitaniyot are tasked with observing the border of gas and looking for signs of everything suspicious. The survivors and relatives of some of the killed this day say they have warned for months that Hamas is preparing for an attack.

A few days before the attack on October 7, Daniela was at home on vacation from service. At the time, she had told her mother, “Mom, when he returned to the army, there would be a war.”

“I didn't think it would be such a war, and of course my daughter would be taken hostage,” says Gi Gilboa.

G -Ja Gilboa and the families of the two other observers who spoke with the BBC say they are joining calls to investigate the incident.

They say that their daughters remain concerned about the conditions of those who are still in gas and have called for the termination of the fire to continue.

Meanwhile, the Leshem Gonen says she still learns what happened to her daughter Roma.

She was shot at the Nova Music Festival, and her mother tells her that she was not treated properly, leaving her with a “open wound where she can see the bone.”

“This is something we can know about and what she is talking about. The other things, I think it will take time.”

Leshem Gonen says Roma described her release in the first week of the truce as “frightening” and “frightening”. She was surrounded by artillerymen and crowds. But the moment of their collection was “so powerful.”

The parents also described how their daughters found ways to go captive every day – by drawing, making notes, or sharing stories with each other.

“They wrote as much as they could every day – what was happening, where they were moving, who were the guards and things like that,” says G -n Berger.

While in captivity, young women dreamed of the things they wanted to do when they were home: getting a hairstyle and eating sushi.

Daniela had painted a butterfly with the word “freedom” while in captivity – now she is tattooed on her hand.

They adapt to life back in Israel and their families say they are taking step -by -step recovery.

The moment of gathering with his daughter Naama is still blurry, says G -N Levy, but he remembers the emotion.

“The feeling was that … now I will take care of you and everything will be fine. Dad is here. That's all. And then everything was quiet.”

Additional reporting from Naomi Sherbel-Ball