One of the first Israeli hostages to have been freed by Hamas is now saying she confronted the terrorist group’s Gaza leader in a tunnel underneath the territory during her time in captivity.
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, told the Israeli newspaper Davar that Yahya Sinwar paid the hostages a visit and “was with us three to four days after we arrived,” according to Reuters.
“I asked him how he is not ashamed to do such a thing to people who all these years have supported peace,” she reportedly said. “He didn’t answer. He was silent.”
Lifshitz was freed by Hamas on Oct. 23 in one of the first hostage releases of the war.
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Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, who was held hostage in Gaza after being abducted during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, speaks to members of the press in Tel Aviv a day after being released by Hamas terrorists. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
Prior to their capture from their home in the Nir Oz kibbutz near the Israel-Gaza border, Yocheved and her 83-year-old husband Oded – who remains in captivity – were activists who helped sick Gazans receive medical care in Israel, her grandson Daniel Lifshitz previously told Reuters.
“They are human rights activists, peace activists for all their life,” Daniel Lifshitz was quoted as saying.
“For more than a decade, they took… sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, not from the West Bank, from the Gaza Strip every week from the Erez border to the hospitals in Israel to get treatment for their disease, for cancer, for anything,” he added.
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Oded and Yocheved Lifshitz were among the hostages captured by Hamas on Oct. 7. Only Yocheved has been released. (Daniel Lifshitz)
Yocheved Lifshitz said civilians beat her once she was brought into Gaza before being moved into an extensive tunnel system where Hamas did provide hostages with some medicine and hygiene supplies, according to Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.
In late October, Lifshitz’s daughter Sharone described to reporters in Tel Aviv the manner in which she was captured on Oct. 7.
“My mom is saying she was taken on the back of a motor bike with her body with her legs on one side and her head on the other side,” Sharone Lifshitz said. “That she was taken through the plow fields with men in front on one side and men behind her.”
She added how her mother was brought into “a huge network of tunnels underneath Gaza that looked like a spiderweb,” according to the BBC.
In this image taken from video released by al-Qahera News, Yocheved Lifshitz is helped by the Red Cross to waiting ambulances at the Rafah border crossing on Monday, Oct. 23, after being released by Hamas militants. (al-Qahera News via AP)
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Yocheved herself said people assigned to guard her had “told us they are people who believe in the Quran and wouldn’t hurt us,” also noting how she and other hostages were fed one meal a day of cheese and cucumber, The Associated Press reported.
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
