Hamas hostages report Beatings, hunger - and card games with the guards
Beatings, despair, small gestures: the hostages in Gaza experienced a rollercoaster between violence and a spark of humanity. Palestinians also complain of cruelty in Israeli custody.
14.10.2025, 22:05
dpa
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- After two years, the last Hamas hostages have been released and are back in Israel.
- There they now report on their experiences, which range from violence and hunger to small human gestures.
- On the other hand, released Palestinian prisoners complain of mistreatment in Israeli custody.
Avinatan Or holds his girlfriend Noa Argamani so tightly in his arms as if he never wants to let her go. He has just been released after two years as a Hamas hostage. The Israeli government published the pictures of the two, for whom two years of nightmare are coming to an end.
Noa and Avinatan were brutally torn apart during the Hamas massacre at the Nova music festival on October 7, 2023. The heartbreaking video recording of the abduction went around the world at the time. In the midst of the carnage, Noa cried out desperately for Avinatan, stretching her arms out to him one last time before being driven towards the Gaza Strip on a motorcycle, trapped between two terrorists.
Now the 32-year-old has been released as one of the last 20 living hostages. Avinatan only found out that Noa survived and was freed by the Israeli army in June 2024 when he was released. 738 days of uncertainty, fear, hunger and violence.
Loneliness and despair
Before that lay endless months of agonizing loneliness. Or was alone the whole time without ever seeing another hostage, as relatives reported to Israeli media. He had lost up to 40 percent of his body weight.
Others who were released also reported physical and psychological torture, loneliness, despair, fear and hunger in the dark tunnels of Hamas. But also of moments of coexistence with their guards and small human gestures.
Moments of humanity
Omri Miran often played cards with his kidnappers and took care of their physical well-being. "Sometimes he cooked for his captors and they were delighted with his cooking," his brother Nadav told the news website "ynet". "He knew exactly what date, what day it was and how many days he was in captivity," his brother added.
Other family members also reported such moments of human coexistence. For example, when terrorists needed an extra player for a card game, they would bring the hostages to them, one family member recounted. Other guards would also speak Hebrew to the hostages.
German-Israelis were separated
The German-Israeli brothers Gali and Ziv Berman were separated during their captivity and completely cut off from the outside world. They reported that there were periods with sufficient food and then months of hunger.
Both, who were held close together without knowing about each other, had also heard the Israeli army operating in their vicinity.
Between dust and rubble
The kidnappers are said to have been particularly brutal with Matan Angerest. He had suffered "very severe torture" because he had been kidnapped as a soldier, his mother Anat Angerest told the TV station Channel 12. She said that he had told her very little so far.
He remembers the heavy bombardments by the Israeli army, the planes flying over their heads, the walls collapsing next to them, and that he often found himself surrounded by dust and rubble, trying to get above ground and survive.
Palestinians cheer released prisoners
The arrival of released Palestinians was also an emotional scene. Surrounded by crowds of people, residents cheered the freedmen as they disembarked from the Red Cross buses.
In accordance with the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, Israel had to release around 1,700 Palestinians arrested in the Gaza Strip and around 250 prisoners, some of whom had been sentenced to life imprisonment. Long-term prisoners had been convicted of serious crimes such as murder and involvement in terrorist attacks on Israelis.
One of them was found guilty of the rape and murder of a 13-year-old in 1989. Another was convicted as the mastermind of suicide bombings in Beersheva in 2004, in which 16 people were killed.
Reports of ill-treatment
Some of those released said they had been mistreated: "They (soldiers) came in the middle of the night and poured water on us. They tortured us in every possible way," said photojournalist Shadi Abu Sido from the Gaza Strip after 20 months in detention.
Other former inmates told CNN about doctors who had beaten them. There was no treatment for injuries or illnesses, a 45-year-old man was quoted as saying.
The UN Human Rights Office had already accused Israel in 2024 of holding thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip "in deplorable conditions". There were reports of mistreatment and torture, the office said in Geneva at the time. At least 53 people had died in Israeli custody.
