Released hostages and family members of those still held hostage by Hamas participated in a panel Monday evening, before which a preview of a national testimony project was screened by Israel’s Government Press Office.
The project is part of an effort to document the testimony of those who were held hostage by Hamas, and documented materials will be made available to the public and to academic institutions.
Previewed footage shows released hosts 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, while others talked about what it was like being taken hostage and seeing 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 meeting 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 of the meeting with Yaakov. He came to her “with the screams of a child who sees someone from home,” she said, saying they “could not be quiet,” despite her instructions to make no noise.
She had not known that Yaakov was also taken hostage, and he had not known that she was 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 hostage. Terrorists broke into her family’s safe room, and killed her husband Nadav immediately. She recalled stepping around her body as she and her four children exited the safe room.
Goldstein-Almog, was momentarily separated from Yam, one of her daughters, while checking on her two sons. When she rushed back to check on Yam, she was stunned to find her shot of her in her face. “I saw the hole in her face, teeth, blood,” she described.
“We didn’t get to say goodbye, not from Nadav or from Yam,” said Goldstein-Almog, who said that the whole kidnapping happened with “unbearable ease,” and that in almost no time they were taken from their home and into Loop.
Goldstein-Almog also talked about being in captivity with young women who she said shared with her their stories of being sexually assaulted in captivity. She said that had they been brought back to Israel more quickly, this could have been prevented, as the assaults did not happen immediately.
These young women will be able to survive the physical injuries, said Goldstein-Almog, who added that she is less convinced they will recover from the sexual offenses against them.
“The despair is very hard,” she said. “I hope that they still have hope. They are doing everything 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 said on the panel that he has heard first person accounts of sexual violence in Hamas captivity. I have heard of cases of rape of men and women held hostage.
Malki Shem-Tov, the father of Omer Shem-Tov who is still in Hamas captivity also spoke at 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 asked them “just try to be human.”
“Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt his soul.”
