New details have emerged about the harrowing months spent in captivity by former hostage Omri Miran.
According to his brother, Boaz Miran, "He told us that at first there were five hostages in a cage just 1.8 meters by 1.6 meters. You couldn't stand up – you had to crouch. Gradually, they began taking people out until only he and one other hostage were left. There was also a period when he was bound for three weeks – not immediately after the abduction, but a bit later. We don't know why. It had to do with the terrorists who were holding them. They kept changing – the locations, the people, everything."
Boaz also described how the terrorists behaved toward the hostages. "They would leave their weapons – their Kalashnikovs – right next to the hostages," he said. "Omri told me that sometimes a terrorist would just go out and leave his gun beside him. We all knew there was nothing we could really do. The man would go into a tunnel, put down his pistol, and leave. The thought crossed his mind to grab the weapon and try to escape, but he knew that even if he got out of the tunnel, there was nowhere to go and no way to move forward."
The terrorists also told the hostages about fellow captive Ron Krivoy, who managed to escape and wandered alone in Gaza for several days before being captured by a mob. "They told them that a guy had been walking around outside for three or four days, and when the locals found him, they beat him savagely," Boaz said. "Hamas terrorists rescued him from the crowd – which shows that even those who are supposedly not Hamas are Hamas."
In the final days of his captivity, Omri heard Israeli forces drawing near. "He heard explosions close by," his brother recounted. "Once, he said he could hear the D9 bulldozers driving right above them – you could actually feel it. There were very powerful explosions."
