'I Went Through Hell': Newly Released 85-Year-Old Hamas Hostage Describes Captivity

Lifschitz, an 85-year-old grandmother, was imprisoned in Gaza for more than two weeks before being freed and flown back to Israel late Monday evening.

Yocheved Lifshitz.

Yocheved Lifshitz, who was released on Monday by Hamas, informed reporters on Tuesday that she "went through hell" in Gaza, CNN reported. Lifschitz, an 85-year-old grandmother, was imprisoned in Gaza for more than two weeks before being freed and flown back to Israel late Monday evening. "It was difficult, but we will get through this," she remarked to media outside Tel Aviv's Sourasky Medical Centre. Speaking in Hebrew with her daughter translating, Lifchitz reported being kidnapped by Hamas militants during their October 7 terror strike on Israel.

"I was kidnapped on a motorbike on my side while they were driving toward Gaza," Lifschitz was quoted by CNN in its report. 

Her daughter described how her mother's head was on one side of the motorbike and her feet dangled on the other.

"It was a painful act. They brought us into a gate. I was lying on the side on the motorbike. I got bruises because of the drive," Lifshitz added. 

Lifshitz's daughter stated that her mother was taken down into a "huge network" of spider web-like tunnels and detained there.

Yocheved Lifschitz explained being dragged underground into Hamas' vast network of tunnels after being kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas militants.

Lifschitz told reporters in Tel Aviv on Tuesday that she was dragged underground after being draped over the back of a motorcycle.

“They walked for a few kilometers on the wet ground,” Lifschitz’s daughter, acting as a translator, explained. “There is a huge, huge network of tunnels underneath. It looks like a spiderweb.” 

Lifschitz stated that physicians and paramedics were waiting for them. Lifschitz claims her kidnappers separated her from 25 other people and placed her in a smaller group with five other people from a nearby kibbutz. 

“As we got there, the people told us that they are people who believe in the Quran and they will not harm us, and we will get the same conditions they get in the tunnels,” Lifschitz was quoted by CNN in its report. 

“There were guards and a paramedic and a doctor who took care of the fact that we’ll have the same medicine that we need," she stated, adding how they "took care of the sanitary side of things so that we didn't get sick." 

Liftschitz and her neighbour and friend Nurit Cooper, 79, were both freed on Monday evening. They are both inhabitants of Kibbutz Nir Oz.

However, it is thought that around 200 individuals were apprehended and transported into Gaza.