Seven hundred thirty-eight days in Gaza's dark tunnels changed everything for Maxim Herkin. Just a month and a half after his release, the former hostage still carries the physical and mental scars of his Hamas captivity, including a disturbing encounter with a terrorist convinced he had some tracking device.
Herkin is struggling to break the routines he was forced to adopt during his two horrific years in Gaza. He walks hunched over, a relic of moving through Gaza's low, narrow tunnels, and he clasps his hands behind his back as if they were still shackled.
"I got used to sitting and sleeping on the ground, and that has turned into a habit," he explained to Israel Hayom. "I might be with family or friends, get up to grab a cup of coffee, and then come back and simply sit down on the floor. My legs are always crossed and pulled tight to my body, because I sat scrunched up for two years. I only notice after many minutes and then return to a chair."
Maxim Herkin was freed in the recent hostage exchange on October 13, having endured 738 days in Hamas captivity. He now shares a harrowing personal experience and discloses that one of his captors boasted about having previously guarded Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier who was held captive for 4 years after being taken captive in 2006.
"My eyes were covered, and my hands and legs were tied," he recounted softly. "I couldn't see anything, but I suddenly felt my clothes being pulled off. One of the terrorists took a knife and just cut them away until I was naked. The terrorist didn't ask me to strip; he did it himself."
"The reason became clear in an instant. He was sure I was a special forces soldier and asked if I had a GPS in my body. I was shocked. The terrorist must have seen too many spy movies and thought they had implanted a chip in me. I stayed calm and told him there was no chance he would find anything on me. After searching me and confirming there were no chips inside me, the terrorist pulled up my underwear himself. I stayed like that for several days – in my underwear, a sealed ski mask covered in blood, and my hands and feet in handcuffs."
In the article, which Israel Hayom will publish this weekend, Maxim Herkin returns to the trauma of October 7 and the physical and psychological abuse he suffered in Gaza. He openly discussed the panic attack he experienced when he heard a song played at the Nova Festival, from which he was abducted , his anxiety for his family, the crowdfunding campaign started by his friends, and the guilt he feels toward his 13 and a half-year-old little brother.
"I see the impact this period has had on him," he added. "He's a fighter, but now he's rebelling. He told me about his pain and that he had to be strong for our mother. This is a 13-year-old boy talking like a 40-year-old. I stole two years of his childhood, and no one can give them back to him."
