Released hostages and family members of those still held captive by Hamas participated in a panel Monday evening after Israel’s Government Press Office screened a preview of a national testimony project.The project is part of an effort to record the testimony of those who Hamas held hostage, and academic institutions and the general public will have access to the recorded materials.Previewed footage shows released hostages describing their capture and the conditions in which they were held. Some described meetings with Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar; some discussed sex offenses committed against them in captivity; and others talked about what it was like to be taken hostage and see loved ones killed.
"I hope they have hope"
Merav Tal, who was released in the November ceasefire, spoke at Monday’s panel about her experience in captivity, recounting the story of her reunion with Yagil Yaakov, the 13-year-old son of her long-term partner who was killed by Hamas.
She was taken to what she now knows was Nasser Hospital, “and a boy comes to me, and he’s screaming my name,” she said. He came to her “with the screams of a child who sees someone from home,” she said, adding that they “could not be quiet,” despite instructions to make no noise.
She didn’t know that Yaakov was also a hostage, nor did he know she was still alive. It was a “moment that broke her,” she described.
Chen Goldstein-Almog also spoke at the panel, talking about the day she was taken into captivity. Terrorists broke into her family’s safe room and killed her husband, Nadav, immediately. She recalled stepping around his body as she and her four children exited the safe room.While checking on her two sons, Goldstein-Almog briefly separated from Yam, one of her daughters. When she rushed back to Yam, she was stunned to find her shot in the face. “I saw the hole in her face, teeth, blood,” she described.“We didn’t get to say goodbye, not from Nadav or Yam,” she said, adding that the kidnappers took them with “unbearable ease”, and in almost no time, they were taken from their home to Gaza.Goldstein-Almog also talked about being in captivity with young women who shared with her their experiences of being sexually assaulted in captivity. Had they been brought back to Israel more quickly, this could have been prevented, as the assaults did not happen immediately, she said.
These young women will survive the physical injuries, said Goldstein-Almog, adding that she is less convinced they will recover emotionally from the sexual abuse.“The desperation is very intense,” she said. “I wish that they still have hope. They are doing all they can to survive, so we must not give up [on bringing them back],” she said.Louis Har, who was freed in an IDF operation that saved him and Fernando Marman, also told the panel that he heard first-hand accounts of sexual violence in Hamas captivity, including the rape of men and women held hostage.
Malki Shem-Tov, the father of Omer Shem-Tov, who is still in Hamas captivity, also addressed the panel. When asked what he would want to say to his son, he said, “Omer, just wait for us.”When asked what he would say to Omer’s captors, he said, “Just try to be human. Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt his soul.”