Hamas terrorized 12-year-old Israeli hostage with lies that his mother was abducted, Israel was eradicated
Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and abducted Eitan Yahalomi, a 12-year-old Israeli-French boy, from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz near the border with Gaza.
Yahalomi was one of at least 240 Israeli and foreign nationals, who were abducted by terrorists who attacked and massacred over 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. The young boy was also one of some 105 Israeli and international hostages who were released in exchange for security prisoners held in Israeli jails.
One month later, Yahalomi is opening up about his hellish experience as a kidnapped child in the Gaza Strip, where he was beaten up and humiliated by Gazan civilians. He described horrors of captivity in an interview with Ynet news.
“That was a frightening experience,” Yahalomi recalled.
He was initially kept isolated from other hostages in what he described as being “very bad, frightening. I sat on the bed all the time, that’s all I did.” During the claustrophobic experience, he was only permitted to occasionally use the toilet and his only “companion” was a small radio that kept him connected to Israel and the outside world. “It was nice to hear things in Hebrew,” Yahalomi revealed to Ynet.
Hamas terrorized the Israeli boy during his lengthy captivity with lies his home and village were destroyed, along with Israel. The terrorists also lied when they told him his mother was held as a captive in the Gaza Strip.
“Sometimes they would tell me that they would soon take me to be with her and then I had hope. I imagined what had happened to [my family] and tried to speak with them inside my head. I was afraid that perhaps something had happened to them. The terrorists told me that the kibbutz no longer existed and the State of Israel didn’t exist,” Yahalomi said.
His mother and younger sisters were initially kidnapped but eventually succeeded in escaping captivity when Hamas terrorists fled into Gaza following the arrival of a significant amount of Israeli military forces to the border area between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Yahalomi was eventually moved to another location in Gaza where he met a good friend from his rural community among other hostages.
The boy's father, Ohad, is believed to still be held as one of the remaining hostages in Gaza and he only found out that his mother was safe when he was released from captivity in late November.
“I was happy and I asked how come she was here,” he recalled.
Yahalomi's aunt told French media how Hamas terrorists forced him to watch the graphic massacres and the destruction of his home community in Israel.
“The Hamas terrorists forced him to watch films of the horrors, the kind that no one wants to see, they forced him to watch them,” she said.
Many of Israel's other former hostages have revealed details of abuse and starvation during their captivity in the Gaza Strip. Their families have accused the Red Cross of neglecting the hostages in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently revealed that the Red Cross had refused to bring critical medicine for some of the more vulnerable hostages in Gaza.
“I met with the Red Cross; I handed them a box of medicine for some of the hostages shown here. Some of them really need it...I told a representative to take this box to Rafah; she said 'no.' It was a difficult conversation,” Netanyahu stated.
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