Yocheved Lifshitz, one of two hostages recently freed by Hamas, has described her ordeal after being kidnapped by the Palestinian militant group in the brazen October 7 attack, saying she “went through hell.”
With her daughter kneeling by the side of her wheelchair, the frail 85-year-old grandmother on Tuesday recalled the moment she was abducted by gunmen on motorbikes after militants broke into her home in the kibbutz Nir Oz.
“It was difficult but we will get through this,” Lifshitz told reporters at a news conference at the Tel Aviv hospital where she has been recovering since being freed.
Well, that’s nice of them at least. Treating them like humans while they are hostages
Is that the truth though, or are they saying that out of fear for what might happen to their husbands?
Most terrorist groups will do at least the bare minimum to keep the hostages healthy and sane because it makes it easier to negotiate their release - a corpse is worth less than a living hostage - and to reduce the risk of the hostages fighting back. So it’s probably true.
While that’s likely true as a hostage at that age is fragile and might die on them if they’re too harsh to her or she doesn’t get her meds and as you said a dead hostage won’t be worth anything to them anyway, it’s also true that if anyone of us was in her shoes and had a loved one still in captivity we wouldn’t say a single negative thing about the captors before they release him/her. There’s a reason why they kept their husbands, it’s very likely a “you better say something nice about us to the media or you’re going to kiss your husbands goodbye” situation.
This is the same people that kidnapped her and her husband. It’s hard to tell but not unheard of that Hamas treats hostages nicely, especially if they want to win the PR war.
Seems like she also said that they were bombed by Israeli forces several times while in Gaza. I’m afraid that the one killing the alive hostages now seems to be mostly Israel, but we’ll (as usual) have to wait and see.
I REALLLY hope their tunnel busting bomb did not trap any hostages down there and starve them alive.
Actually seems like Hamas released photos and names of several hostages who died in Israeli bombing. Not sure how that’s possible to confirm.
If, IF they didn’t murder 1400 people, it will be far easier to make people understand their cause and point to Israel being the barbarian. I stand by the opinion that Palestinian should be free from Israel and Israel should respect the green line, but Hamas action makes it really hard to argue with pro-israel people.
Hamas’s actions prove that the pro-Israel people don’t know what they’re talking about. The “tough on Palestine” position hasn’t worked, doesn’t work and will never work. To quote something I saw around here, “free Palestine” is the correct response to a tragedy that wouldn’t have happened if Palestine was free.
Oof, yeah, it’s been done again and again and again and Hamas is still here fighting. Israel can’t and will never wash their hand clean if they still hold Palestine land, sea, and sky.
I agree with this. What I think Palestinians need to accept, regardless of whatever historical justification is used, is that violent military resistance to Israel also has not and never will work. The only thing with any possible chance is both sides accepting a need to co-exist with the other, something neither side has expressed much interest in between Israeli settlements and Hamas rockets.
Just gonna mention that both the PNA and Hamas tried many times in the last 30 years. The PNA had the Oslo accords, the 2000 camp David summit and the 2013, Hamas signed ceasefires in Israel in 2008 and 2012. Additionally both created a short-lived united government (a very important step towards peace) in 2013 that Israel fought every step of the way. While who was at fault in the Camp David summit is a matter of debate, the others Israel was unequivocably the one at fault.
“Palestinians don’t want peace” is basically Israeli propaganda now, and basically ignores the fact that the PNA, which controls the West Bank, has denounced violence for the past 30 years.
I’d agree that the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is a much more legitimate party that generally has made efforts to negotiate in good faith, and that Israel’s actions there are largely indefensible.
I don’t think it can really be denied that Hamas has no real interest in peace though (nor does Netanyahu, for that matter).
I mean the ceasefires and united government project seem like good faith efforts towards peace to me. They also changed their charter to only demand a return to 1967 borders, so while it’s weird it seems they’ve decided to settle for a two-state solution rather than killing all Jews. At least that’s what their actions say, and especially when it comes to politicians actions speak louder than words.
Yeah, so long as you just completely ignore their actions from two and half weeks ago. Disregarding the murder of a thousand Israeli civilians, they’re not trying to kill Israeli.
If you’re just going to ignore reality, I can find a better use of my time.
I mean, they’re a violent resistance group, but it seems they’ve tried to end the violence before. That doesn’t strike me as “having no interest in peace”, is what I’m saying. Committing terror and wanting peace aren’t mutually exclusive. Hell, the ANC also did it (though not at the same scale as Hamas).
Also one of the problems is that both PNA and Hamas are massively corrupt and not interested in actually improving the lot of ordinary Palestinians.
While I don’t trust any non-democratically elected government to actually prioritize their citizens, especially not one in the middle East, there’s also just not much they can do. Gaza is a ghetto under blockade and the West Bank is a Buntustan. It’s Israel who holds all the power and they’re very much happy with the current situation.
How about they don’t line pockets and care for their people, Hamas are criminals. Its a sad reality that none of the involved parties care about palestine people.
Israel know what they want, and they deliberately won’t give them to make Palestine looks bad. The last peace talk had PNA asking them to respecting the green line, retreating IDF from Palestine soil, and also eviction of the illegal settler. The talk drags on for months till the deadline, and finally ended when PNA started reconciliation with Hamas, where Manbaby Netanyahu reject any peace talk due to Hamas.
In the period of the negotiation, they continue to build illegal settlement.