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."

The post 'The terrorist stripped me, looking for a GPS chip' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"We are so excited," they say. "This feeling is so powerful that it's hard to explain in words. After long months of uncertainty and pain, the knowledge that they are here fills the collective heart with relief. We think a lot about the families, about the first moments of the encounter, about the tears, about the first breath of quiet. This is deep joy, but also cautious, from understanding that their path is still long."

From your experience, what period awaits them now?

"The return from captivity is a new beginning, not a return to routine. This period requires adjustment to a different reality, both internally and externally. After such a long time of survival, the body and soul need to learn again how to live, how to sleep, how to eat, and how to trust. The families, too, will need to learn this new rhythm, to understand when to approach and when to give space. This involves a long, delicate process, where every small day is an achievement in itself.

"We wish the hostages that first of all they find quiet. That they listen to themselves, and don't rush to 'be okay.' They should surround themselves with people who can contain and listen, and not ask or dig too much. They should remember that every emotion, even anger or confusion, is part of true healing. We wish them to return to life at their own pace, and not at anyone else's pace."

Amit Soussana, kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, became one of the best-known captivity survivors, following a viral video showing how she fought tirelessly against the numerous terrorists who kidnapped her. She was also the first to direct a glaring spotlight at the sexual harassment the female captives experienced in captivity, and openly told about the sexual assaults and the physical and verbal violence she experienced from Hamas terrorists. Amit recounted her harrowing story also to the global media, at the White House, and before the UN Security Council.

"When I heard the rain, I remembered the second day of my kidnapping in Gaza. Suddenly, a crazy flood. Then, rain came after the fires, after the chaos, amid all the fear we felt. That rain wasn't comforting; it only emphasized how much everything was destroyed around us. This time it looks different. It wasn't a rain of pain, but a rain of blessing. Of something new and clean in the air. Of hope. How long have we not felt hope?"

How do hostages who arrive home after a long period feel?

"In the days I returned home, after a long period of darkness, I understood that I am safe and protected among the people who love me. I was moved to see the entire country mobilizing for the hostages' return. What happiness to see how the streets are filled with genuine joy.

"I was also happy to see Gali and Ziv Berman, my neighbors, returning home. I don't stop thinking about what they went through, whether they truly believe it's real, and that they're in Israel. When I saw the hug they received, I remembered the hug I received from the entire nation when I returned. That gave me the strength to start over. I know that the hug and love will also strengthen them and help them begin to rehabilitate."

Amit finds it important to add words of support also to the security forces and soldiers: "They fought so this moment would happen. They risked their lives to protect all of us. I share in the deep sorrow of the families who lost their loved ones. All our hearts are with you. I understand the difficulty and feel the pain of the bereaved families, who are forced to see those who harmed their loved ones released from prison. We will not forget and will not forgive."

Omer Shem Tov, kidnapped from the Nova Festival, a friend of Mia and Itay Regev, who were also kidnapped, was held in captivity alone most of the time. He returned to Israel emaciated, having shed 17 kilograms (37 pounds) of his weight. One of the memorable scenes from Hamas' cruel release performances is of Omer, who was forced to wave goodbye to the Gazan crowd and kiss the head of one of the guards.

"I am so excited," he says. "Since the ceasefire agreement, I haven't managed to rest, and I'm constantly moving. I returned to that moment when I was in the tunnel and heard I was returning home. I was so happy, but I reminded myself that until I'm home, I'm not home. With all the joy and all the happiness, I must say it's not over yet, and we need to continue praying. We'll send energy and continue fighting until the deceased hostages are also returned to Israel.

"I imagined the whole time how they would arrive and see their officer, how they would be given a first real hug. I imagined until the last moment how they would board the minibus, cross the border, arrive at Base Re'im, and receive that small room, where they can finally shower, wear clothes from their closet, and then see their parents again. How much happiness. They don't understand at all how much light they will bring to this nation again. I'm waiting for us all to recover and become a united nation."

"I thank the security forces and soldiers who did everything to return us home. I ask forgiveness from the bereaved families. Forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. I thank you for your sacrifice. Because of you, so many hostages are here."

Louie Har, kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak together with his partner Clara Marman, her brother Fernando Marman, her sister Gabriela Leimberg, Gabriela's daughter, Mia, and the dog, Bella. On October 7, Clara hosted a gathering at her home in Nir Yitzhak, attended by her family members and Louie. The terrorists broke through the safe room door and dragged the five outside. Initially, Louie was held in Khan Younis, and later he was transferred to Rafah, from where he was rescued.

After the release of Clara, Gabriela, and Mia on day 53, he and Fernando remained alone, occupying themselves with fantasies about food, about flights abroad, and about release from captivity. The rescue operation was quick. The fighters burst into the house, eliminated the terrorists, took him and Fernando, brought them down from the building with a rope, and ran with them toward a truck, and from there to a helicopter that flew them to Israel.

"I almost don't sleep at night, but now there's a good reason," he says with the optimism that characterizes him. "The release threw us into a whirlwind of emotions. At first we didn't know if it would really happen, and I told myself that until I don't see them here – I don't believe it and don't develop expectations, so as not to be disappointed. As time passed, I realized they were returning, and I've been in hyper-excitement ever since. After two years, they're home, and I still don't know how to process the emotions."

"In captivity, I had a lot of hope and faith that I would get out, but if I had stayed the entire period, perhaps I would be in a completely different state. Perhaps I wouldn't have stayed so strong, and at some point, I probably would have given up and raised my hands. For a certain period, my body still managed to hold itself together, but toward the end of my captivity, I already started feeling unwell, because the medications I needed weren't with me."

"I wish them that they'll be well, that they'll be able to rehabilitate and continue forward alongside their families. This will not be a simple period. I hope they'll emerge from this difficulty quickly, but the trauma remains for life. One needs to learn to live with it. I can suddenly burst into tears, or I'm shaking all over. A loud noise causes me distress, and my body contracts. Each time I tell myself, 'you're strong, you can overcome.'

"I make a point of filling my life with positive actions, like, for example, returning to dancing. I also established the 'Hope Display' in Hostages Square, featuring letters made of colorful cubes, and added drawings received from children. Children who come to the square can also draw there freely and express their opinions.

"Now I have a mission, and I'm engaged in advocacy in Israel and abroad. I speak about what I went through, and it gives me healing. I don't have a prepared lecture; I say what comes out, and sometimes the audience's questions bring back a memory I had forgotten. The best advice I can give to everyone who returned from captivity is that it's important to remain optimistic."

Eli Sharabi was kidnapped from his home in Be'eri. His wife, Lian, and their two daughters, Noya and Yael, were murdered by the terrorists. His brother, Yossi, was also kidnapped from Be'eri, and was killed in January 2024, apparently due to IDF bombings. Yossi was returned to Israel this week as part of the ceasefire.

Everyone is impressed by Eli's unusual mental resilience, who lost his family and his brother and survived in captivity under conditions hard to digest. He was beaten violently, shackled in iron chains, and suffered from extreme hunger and terrible sanitary conditions. His release was like a kick in the stomach, after he shed many kilograms in captivity, and his appearance reminded everyone of the appearance of Jews after the Holocaust. Sharabi, who is currently engaged in advocacy and lectures, spent most of his time in captivity with hostage Alon Ohel, and since then, he has served as a vocal voice for his release. This week, his wish came true.

How do you feel with the return of Alon and the other hostages?

"Personally, I'm in mixed emotions. For our family, the ending is difficult, because we received our brother Yossi of blessed memory in a coffin. With that, we're happy about the return of all the hostages, and from here we can begin the recovery process from the trauma of October 7."

What period awaits the released hostages after two years?

"A long period of physical and mental recovery will await them, when they're wrapped in a lot of love from their loved ones. I wish them to return to life and concentrate on what makes them smile."

Ofelia Roitman, kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz alone, since her husband, Hector, was in rehabilitation after breaking his pelvis. On the morning of October 7, she stayed in the safe room. The terrorists opened the door, fired nine bullets inside, and hit her hand. She was transported to Gaza on a tractor, stayed initially in a tunnel, and was later transferred to a house in Khan Younis, from whose ground floor rockets were fired at Israel. The struggle for her release reached Argentina thanks to her nephew, Hernan Feler, a Jewish-Argentine soccer broadcaster who, during the World Cup qualifiers, demanded to free the hostages, among them his aunt.

"The hostages' return is proof that captivity cannot break the human spirit," she says in a heavy Argentine accent. "I know what superhuman forces are required to survive the abyss.

"Their return is the hope that fills us, and it's the foundation for the long rehabilitation that stands before them and before the families. The mission has still not been completed. So that all of us, captivity survivors, can truly turn to real rehabilitation, we also need all the deceased to return home. Then we'll truly be able to emerge from darkness to light. Meanwhile, the body is released, but the soul still isn't. This is the beginning of rehabilitation and learning anew."

What will the hostages deal with?

"The hostages face a period when they'll need to understand that they're no longer anonymous, and everyone knows them. They won't always want this. The world outside is running, but you'll need to walk slowly. Don't resist it. Take your time. It's like watching a movie with so many details that it's hard to take in everything. It takes years, and perhaps you'll never succeed. Don't expect to jump back to the life you had, because that's no longer the same life. You've changed, the family, the home, the country. You'll need to learn to know them anew.

"The most important thing I can say is that you're not alone. Inside the confusion and trauma, there are people who can help, and there's family. Enjoy the small moments of life, like a hug, like talking, singing. The power to choose, the taste of a good slice of bread, fruit, or a cup of coffee. Enjoy opening a refrigerator and the smell of home. In the end, everything will be good."

Emily Damari was kidnapped on October 7 from her home in the Dor Tsair neighborhood in Kfar Aza, after being shot in her hand and leg, and her dog was killed. As a result of the shooting, two of her fingers were amputated, and during captivity, she underwent complex surgery without anesthesia. Hamas terrorists called her "heroine" (saj'aya).

"Today, when Ziv and Gali (Berman) returned together with all the living hostages after 738 days of prayers and longing, I feel that my heart is finally whole again," she says. "Since I returned from Hamas captivity, every day I felt how part of me remained there. It's a strange feeling. The body breathes, but I'm not really living. Today, when I see the other hostages again in Israel, breathing, smiling, free – I feel that I too was released. After 471 days in the darkest captivity, I know today more than ever what the meaning of light, of freedom, and of life itself.

"Since I returned to Israel, I tried to return to routine, to do the things I love, and mainly to be surrounded by friends and family. I attended the Maccabi games, trying to get excited and shout along with everyone, but it just wasn't the same without my good friends from the stands, Ziv and Gali. Even when Maccabi took the championship, I felt a sense of emptiness, because no victory is complete when not everyone is here with us. Today, when my heart is again whole, even the small victories of life receive a different meaning.

"Although I'm missing two fingers, they remind me every day how precious life is, and that one can feel whole even when parts of you are missing. And if I learned something, it's that true wholeness isn't in the body, but in the soul.

"Alongside the rehabilitation we'll undergo here together, we must not forget that still the murderous terror organization Hamas holds the deceased hostages in captivity, in complete violation of the agreement. Their families and the entire nation deserve to see them returning home, for burial in Israel and eternal rest, today.

"We also need to remember that we owe our lives to those who fell in defense of the homeland, so we could return here. To the bereaved families, to the wounded in body and soul, to those serving compulsory duty, career, and reserves – thanks to them, the State of Israel stands today on its feet. We owe them our breath of freedom, the right to love, laugh, and dream again. This is a moral debt that has no expiration date – a debt of an entire nation to heroes who gave everything for all of us.

"And now, when the world looks at us through a magnifying glass, this is our moment, the people of Israel, to raise the flag with pride. Not from hatred, but from faith, unity, and love for who we are. This nation knew difficult days, but never surrendered – and will never surrender. We'll continue to live, remember, and love. Because that's our victory – of all of us."

The pictures of Yagil Yaakov, who was only 13 when kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz, were burned into the national consciousness of the October 7 massacre. A small child, frightened, who was led against his will to the Gaza Strip when surrounded by armed terrorists from the Islamic Jihad, and begging them: "Don't take me, I'm too small."

In November 2023, he was released after 52 days in captivity. His father, Yair, was murdered by Hamas terrorists while holding the safe room door and was kidnapped together with his partner, Meirav Tal, who was also released in the first phase.

Today, Yagil finally feels relief. "From now on, every time I enter the shower or eat something, I won't feel guilt anymore about doing something they cannot," he says. "Today, the only guilt I have is that I merited to bury my father, and the families of the deceased who remain still haven't.

"In the first days, the hostages will be on crazy adrenaline. A feeling of victory. This is really a return to a different and changed life. Personally, when I returned, the only thing that was hard for me was that I left my father behind, and that I wouldn't have a home to return to. The hostages who returned won't have to go through this experience like I did. I wish the hostages that they'll experience life, and that from now on they'll only be happy and utilize every small moment with family."

The post 'Learn to trust again': The guide of survivors for newly returned hostages appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The complete and extraordinary story of police officer Yaakov Biskowitz was never fully revealed until now. He embodied heroism both as a Holocaust survivor from the Sobibor camp in Poland and as an Israeli police officer who received a commendation for saving a human life.

As a young boy, Biskowitz became one of the few people who survived for an extended period in a death camp, participated in the revolt that led to the camp's closure, and was the last Jew to leave Sobibor alive. He testified at the Eichmann trial, taking the stand in police uniform and presenting the camp map he drew himself, which became the most detailed documentation of the site to date. The camp map he meticulously created contributed significantly to exposing Nazi atrocities and assisted in archaeological excavations that uncovered gas chambers and crematoria that had remained buried and hidden underground for decades.

Eighty-two years after his escape from the camp and 13 years after his death, the Israel Police Heritage Center has produced a virtual reality exhibit dedicated to his work exposing the mass murder at Sobibor. Simultaneously, an academic article titled "Reassessment Based on Archaeological Excavations and Documentation as Tools for Reconstructing Sobibor Camp: The Testimony of Yaakov Biskowitz as a Test Case" will soon be published by Chief Inspector Dr. Yossi Hemi from the History Department of the Heritage Center and archaeologist Dr. Yoram Haimi, who excavated the area for 15 years and revealed the remains of the death camp to the world.

Sobibor was one of three death camps, along with Treblinka and Belzec, established as part of "Operation Reinhard," a comprehensive plan to exterminate Polish Jews. The camp was established in 1942, and shortly afterward, 15-year-old Biskowitz arrived there with his parents and sister Hinda. His mother and sister were immediately sent to the gas chambers, while his father was selected to work in the camp as a carpenter.

"I, being a child, was dragged by my father," he recounted during the Eichmann trial. "From that transport, they took about 12 people. From the first day, I worked with everyone. Initially, it was building the camp and barbed wire fences, and we dragged branches running from a distance of about 1.9 miles."

With his father in the killing valley, Biskowitz witnessed how those who didn't work were shot or sent to gas chambers, and he worried constantly about his father, who had fallen ill with typhus. "I would carry him to work every day," he recounted. "We worked in the Ukrainians' casino. He sat in the corner, and I worked for him too. I did my best, but the day came when I could no longer carry him. That day, two SS men came, removed him from the barracks, and led him to the shooting pit, accompanied by beatings and shouting. They shot him in front of me. I wanted to run after him, but the workers who were with me held me back."

Biskowitz remained in Sobibor for one year and four months, making him one of the few Jews who survived so long in a death camp, as the average life expectancy in these facilities did not exceed two months.

On October 14, 1943, the famous revolt broke out that was later immortalized in the film "Escape from Sobibor," with a screenplay written by camp survivor Thomas Blatt.

"With the cessation of frequent transports to the camp, towards spring 1943, the Jews understood that the place would be closed and all its inhabitants eliminated," Dr. Hemi explains. "Then the Jewish underground members began to organize for the revolt, in which hundreds of prisoners participated." The Jewish prisoners set an ingenious trap for the Nazis, inviting them to try on new leather coats, shoes, or to inspect items they had crafted for them. Every SS man who entered was attacked with axe blows or knife stabs. Sixteen camp staff members were eliminated through this strategy. Biskowitz himself stabbed one of them.

The guards eventually recovered from the shock and shot hundreds of the Jewish prisoners. Those who managed to escape to the forests were caught and executed. Only 47 camp residents survived, but Biskowitz's survival story stands out as truly miraculous. Due to the commotion during the revolt, he failed to reach the fence and was forced to flee toward the crematoria. He hid in a shooting pit until after midnight, when only guards remained in Sobibor. Under the cover of darkness, he managed to escape and became the last living Jew to leave the camp.

In his testimony at the Eichmann trial, he described his harrowing escape from Sobibor: "I remained in the Lazarett, the shooting pit, until after midnight. After jumping over a fence two meters high, through the yard where people undressed before the gas chamber, several shots were fired at me from the guard on the tower. Since it was already dark, no bullet hit me. Later, many SS men came and started running in my direction, but they thought no one was running and left the place. Only at night did I start to penetrate through wire fences, tearing barbed wire with my hands. The guard wasn't there by chance. Finally, I managed to get out of the camp."

The hardships Biskowitz endured did not weaken his resolve. At about 17 years old, he joined the partisans and later enlisted in the Polish army, working in mine clearance. About a year later, he deserted the army following an antisemitic dispute and was sentenced to death. The army ultimately decided to grant him clemency, and he served four months in prison before returning to his position. A few months later, he deserted again, joined the Betar movement, and with its help relocated to a refugee camp in Germany.

In 1947, he boarded an immigrant ship bound for Palestine that the British intercepted and diverted to Cyprus. Two years later, he immigrated to Israel and enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces. In 1952, he was discharged and joined the police force. During his law enforcement career, he served as a patrol officer, traffic policeman, embassy guard, member of the prisoner escort unit, and in the national headquarters guard.

In 1959, Biskowitz was called at night to a street in Tel Aviv following a report of a man threatening to jump from his apartment window. When he arrived, the man jumped, and Biskowitz extended his hands to catch him. While the man was saved, Biskowitz suffered severe injuries that required a month of hospitalization.

The incident was reported in newspapers at the time, and much was said about the police commissioner's commendation awarded to him, but Biskowitz deliberately concealed the fact that he was a Holocaust survivor. Only with the opening of Adolf Eichmann's trial in May 1961 did he reveal what he had endured, describe his role in the Sobibor revolt, and disclose that a friend from the death camp had managed to save some photographs from the crematoria – the only memento of his parents and sister. On his own initiative, he also presented his drawing of the camp to the court without realizing the historical significance it would later hold.

Throughout his life, Biskowitz married twice, to Bella and Tova, and left behind two children, Aryeh and Yechiel. He retired from the police force and passed away in 2002 at the age of 76. Four years after his death, the map he had drawn became one of the key tools that exposed what had transpired in the camp. The process began when archaeologist Dr. Yoram Haimi from Kibbutz Mefalsim in the Gaza border region discovered that his uncles had been murdered in Sobibor. "I went there to see if there was a museum or archive, but there was nothing," Haimi recalls. "There were only three monuments and a forest. As an archaeologist, I thought it was a place worth investigating. I met with the manager of a synagogue museum in the town near Sobibor, and he said if I get funding, he would arrange the permits."

Haimi located Biskowitz's map in the state archives, and it guided him throughout the excavations that began in 2007 and concluded in 2021. "We found 220,000 artifacts there, including jewelry, watches, tableware, perfume bottles, and teeth," he says. "Unfortunately, the Polish authorities placed most of them in storage and didn't allow us to bring them to Israel. Biskowitz's map proved remarkably accurate and was enormously helpful. Wherever he indicated barracks or gas chambers had stood, that's precisely what we found. Everything had been buried in the ground."

As someone who experienced October 7 in Mefalsim, Haimi commented on conducting similar excavations in the Gaza border region in the future. "I need to recover from the trauma, and since that Saturday I've taken a break from excavations."

The post Last Sobibor camp survivor, Nazi killer, and witness at Eichmann trial: Yaakov Biskowitz reveals buried Nazi atrocities appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Merav Gilboa-Dalal recounted information passed on by former hostages Omer Wenkert and Tal Shoham, who were held with Guy and Evyatar and appeared together with them in the now-infamous brutal video published by Hamas, as they watched their own release.

"They are being held in a small tunnel, 30 meters underground. They are chained. The tunnel is extremely cramped, dark, cut off from the outside world, and barely has room for four mattresses. There's nowhere to move, and you can't stand upright. Inside that tiny space, there's a pit for relieving themselves, and everything is done in full view of the other hostages. Guy and Evyatar are living in filth, and we know they are being subjected to severe psychological abuse.

"They don't know how hard we're fighting for them. They're malnourished, in a place with hardly any air, no physical activity, and no stimulation. It's easy to sink into depression in such a place. We also know their health is not good. Guy, for example, was kidnapped with knee and ear problems, and we know these injuries are not being treated. Both of them are suffering from various infections and extreme mental distress."

Video: The Hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David watching other captives being released / Credit: Social media

Galia David, Evyatar's mother, added, "He's been there for a year and a half without his glasses and can barely see. He and Guy have been starving for a long time, for many months. But about two weeks before Tal and Omer's release, they suddenly started feeding them. Just think about how they looked in that video Hamas released, and imagine how they looked before they started giving them that food. They're really suffering."

Merav continued, "You've got four thin young men who weren't given food, and suddenly they're being stuffed. No one told them why this was happening. They didn't know that some of them were about to be released because there's no communication and no one updates them. Think about Guy and Evyatar's mental state now, after they were taken out together with Tal (Shoham) and Omer (Wenkert), thinking they were about to be freed as well. On top of the harsh conditions and the relentless abuse, they experienced something devastating. The terrorists gave them a taste of freedom for a moment and then shoved them back into that filthy, black hole."

Galia said, "I believe the terrorists haven't managed to completely break them."

Messages from captivity

David and Gilboa-Dalal were abducted from the Nova festival. After "Operation Arnon" this past June, freed hostage Almog Meir Jan, who was kidnapped with them and spent the first day in Gaza alongside them, shared what those first horrific hours were like.

"Almog said they were put in a pickup truck, with him in the front and Evyatar and Guy in the back," Merav described. "We now know they were among the first abducted from Nova. Later, we learned that from the moment they arrived in Gaza, they endured severe beatings."

Did you receive any personal messages from them?

Galia: "We did, but I prefer to keep that to myself for now. I'm not comfortable sharing personal things my son asked to be passed on to me."

Merav: "I feel the same. But broadly speaking, they sent their love."

Galia: "From the hostages who returned, we heard that the relationship between Guy and Evyatar is symbiotic. They depend on each other."

Merav: "What will happen if they do a selection and only take one of them? They can't survive without each other."

Galia: "They chose each other at 18 months old. This isn't a blood connection. Their souls were bonded by choice, and that's extraordinary. When one of them hurts, the other does too."

The post 'Chained in a tunnel': The captivity of hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal, Evyatar David appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Suddenly, Staff Sgt. (res.) S. spotted a woman in a long dress advancing toward the building from afar. S. reported to her commanders and waited for instructions. According to the messages IDF had relayed to Gaza civilians, anyone insisting on approaching the area would be suspected of attempting to harm ground forces and would be risking their life.

"The decision was made to fire near the woman, to make her turn around and leave," S. reveals for the first time about her conduct as one of the few female snipers in the Israeli military. "It's a warning so they don't become a threat to IDF forces. They should know we won't kill them for no reason, but someone's keeping an eye on them.

"When she continued to advance, I fired a second and third time close to her feet. The woman seemed determined and didn't crouch or move aside. She kept walking toward the soldiers. I shot her in the leg, and she stopped and then fell. She didn't cry or scream. Paratroopers approached her and provided medical treatment while I continued observing the route.

"Suddenly I saw an old Fiat approaching at top speed. I fired once at the vehicle as a warning. Through the scope, I saw the driver wearing black clothes, dark sunglasses, and a baseball cap. He didn't slow down for a second, and it was clear he was determined to harm the soldiers helping the woman. I aimed at his chest and fired once. The car stopped, and the driver crawled out and fell to the ground bleeding.

"I kept my eyes on him while combat engineers cautiously approached and blew up the car. The noise, fire, and force made it clear that the car was rigged with explosives. I felt like I was in the movie 'American Sniper' in Iraq. Is this really me here now? I prevented a mass-casualty attack.

"Afterward, I thought about the ruthlessness of Hamas terrorists, who sent an elderly woman as a human lure. These terrorists have no limits, and they don't care about collateral damage. Let children and women die. The ones who saved the woman were IDF soldiers."

Although about 20 female snipers currently serve in the mixed-gender Border Defense Corps battalions – Bardelas, Caracal, Lions of the Jordan Valley, and Lions of the Valley – this detail doesn't receive media attention and doesn't appear in any Wikipedia entry or on the IDF website. Even Hollywood, addicted to war movies in Iraq and Afghanistan, has no trace of women serving in sniper platoons.

Now, Israel Hayom has interviewed two snipers from Bardelas, S. and Staff Sgt. L., who shared about their challenging role, their entry into Gaza, the elimination of terrorists, and the moments when they were in mortal danger.

"There's not a second of quiet in Gaza," L. says. "In my estimation, the terrorists eventually figured out we were in the building and tried to hit us too. It was clear to me that there was a chance I'd end my life there, but I was focused on the mission."

Q: Did you write a letter to your parents in advance?

"I decided against it. I was afraid I'd be tempting fate, accepting the fact and bringing death upon myself."

The look of Lara Croft

When searching online for women who served as snipers, only the name of Lyudmila Pavlichenko comes up, who served in the Russian army during World War II and single-handedly eliminated 309 soldiers from the Nazi German army. Beyond that, there's no reference to these female fighters.

S. (21) and L. (20) understand that they are unique, but prefer to remain in the shadows where it's easiest to blend in and disappear – a stone's throw from the southernmost Egyptian border. The role of Bardelas fighters is to prevent infiltrations and thwart weapons and drug smuggling, while snipers provide backup from height and shoot at long ranges if necessary. When there's no operational need for snipers, they also serve as regular fighters and join pursuits and arrests.

This week the border looked quiet. No foxes or wild donkeys roamed near the Egyptian fence, and the yellow mountains gleamed in their desolation under the scorching sun. One giant sign, partially peeled, warns in Hebrew, Arabic, and English that anyone who crosses or touches the fence is risking their life.

Despite the heavy heat, S. and L. climb to a high observation post with huge protector cases containing the heavy sniper rifles. They nimbly hop over the slippery rocks and for a moment look like a copy of Lara Croft, just with the addition of IDF uniforms and minus the knife strapped to the thigh.

When they skillfully pull out the long-range weapon, capable of reaching 500 meters (1,640 feet), a serious expression comes over their faces. They straighten the bipod, insert the magazine, lie down on the sharp rocks without blinking or crying out in pain, and get under a camouflage net covering their entire bodies. Only the barrel and their fingers with colorful nail polish stick out.

"It's on purpose," L. smiles. "The nail polish is the most obvious sign showing it's a female fighter and not a male. With the uniforms, vest, helmets, and face cover, you can't tell it's a female sniper. We're left with our nails and also the braid in our hair, which isn't always visible."

Q: Did you know that female fighters in the Kurdish army wore heavy makeup and shouted "kololo" at ISIS terrorists in Syria so they'd know they were women? ISIS believers think that whoever falls at the hands of a woman loses their place in paradise.

"Excellent idea," S. laughs. "Next time in Gaza I'll trill 'kololo' the moment I release a bullet."

About a month and a half ago, S. was discharged from regular service, and the next day she enlisted in the reserves until the end of November. "As someone who grew up in the south, I looked up to the soldiers who protected my home even as a child," she says. "In high school I knew I'd study architecture and interior design, so in the army I looked for something opposite and experiential that doesn't exist in civilian life. It was clear to me that I wanted to be in combat, not sitting in front of a computer, and I chose Border Defense infantry to serve as a fighter."

Q: Were you accepted to the sniper team right from the start?

S.: "No. After basic training, everyone receives a weapons package, and I got a marksman rifle, which is more accurate and for relatively long ranges. I connected with long-range shooting and wanted to switch to sniping, but there was no room. When the only two female snipers in the team at the time suffered from medical issues and couldn't do more ambushes, I jumped at the opportunity."

L., a resident of the north, also wanted to serve as a combat soldier, but hadn't heard of Bardelas, which was established nine years earlier, and chose the Oketz unit. "I enlisted two years ago and was already interested in serving as a sniper during basic training," she smiles.

"The sniper team was full, so I served as an operational driver. There was quite a bit of activity around smuggling at the border and I really enjoyed it, but when the need for more snipers arose during the war, I immediately said I was interested. In the course, I was the only female fighter among men. They treated me like one of them and didn't make an issue of me being a woman. I managed to participate in a few ambushes before I received the notification that I was entering Gaza."

A bullet in memory of the fallen

The morning of Oct. 7 caught L. at home, while S. was at the base near Eilat. "I was in a room with no reception, and to get messages you need to go outside," she recounts. "I woke up around 10 when a female fighter finished her guard duty and was making herself coffee. She didn't tell me anything about the Hamas invasion and the drama in the country.

"After a few minutes I went out of the room to check my phone to see who had tried to reach me, and I was shocked. Murdered, kidnapped, hell. I realized we were at war. My mom was hysterical because she couldn't reach me and feared I had been killed. By the time I calmed her down, all the battalion's fighters and the sniper team had already arrived. After two days they sent us to Talmei Yosef in the Eshkol region."

L.: "I was there too, and the rockets didn't stop. Usually I heard a 'boom' and only then came the siren. We did patrols in greenhouses and checked the orchards to make sure there were no more terrorists, and we secured residents who didn't want to evacuate. There wasn't a moment of respite there."

In November, L. joined the sniper course, while S. returned to routine activity on the Egyptian border. "If in the past we would go on ambushes every time there was intelligence information, in those days we went out every day from sunset to sunrise," says S. "We barely slept, and my days and nights were flipped. I felt disconnected because they didn't always allow us to open our phones, and I constantly wanted to get updates on information about hostages, fallen soldiers, and the activity of IDF forces."

Q: When did you receive the notification that you were entering Gaza?

S.: "The day before we entered, in early December. I was very excited, but there were also concerns. In Bardelas we're used to stones, sand, and desert, not urban warfare."

L.: "I received the notification a few hours before we left for Gaza. This was about a week after I finished the sniper course. I didn't know what to pack because I tend to bring my whole house everywhere. It was important for me to take hygiene and grooming products, because the mission in Gaza doesn't contradict my desire to remain a woman."

Q: Did you want to join the fighting?

L.: "It was very important to me. At the beginning of the war, I lost one of my best friends, Sgt. First Class Aviel Melkamu, a fighter in Egoz who fell in Kisufim. I wanted to fight for him. I decided to dedicate the first bullet that would leave my barrel in Gaza to him. I knew this was also our moment as female fighters and snipers on the front lines. They didn't always believe in women fighters in the IDF, until Oct. 7 came. Unfortunately, it was the war that exposed our capabilities."

Q: Do you remember the moment you crossed the border into Gaza?

S.: "I remember the ride in Humvees through Be'eri Forest to the place where the terrorists breached the wall. I was amazed at how short the road to Khan Younis was. We drove maybe ten minutes. No wonder the terrorists entered the border communities so quickly."

The sniper team positioned themselves on a floor of the factory and turned it into an organized observation post. They covered the windows with special camouflage nets, set up a table in front of the window facing the route, and placed the long sniper rifle on it. Then they dragged a bookcase and turned it into a cabinet for food products, and set up a gas stove on which they prepared pasta. After a few days, reserve soldiers from the battalion arrived at the location and conducted a moving ceremony for the snipers.

L.: "It was during Hanukkah. One of the reservists brought a mezuzah with him and fixed it at the entrance to the factory, which was quite destroyed. He spoke in a touching way and said that Hamas terrorists entered our homes during Simchat Torah and slaughtered our people. There's nothing more symbolic than that on another Jewish holiday we're fortifying ourselves in their homes, putting up one of the Jewish symbols and protecting our people. I've never been so moved."

Inside a booby-trapped Fiat

The Tancher route became the main path through which humanitarian aid passed. Occasionally, civilians also walked on it in an orderly and approved manner to northern Gaza, holding white flags in their hands. "We saw civilians with blankets and bags, and we looked at them through the sights," says S. "Sometimes I felt a little sorry for them, but I felt they brought this situation upon themselves.

"We were always on alert and with an eye on the scope. We knew the infantry soldiers were counting on us, and we were essentially on the front line. The forces were behind the factory. It was clear that if we missed a terrorist, he would continue to the fighters and harm them, or could also enter our factory."

L.: "We had to be as alert as possible, even if we weren't on shift at that moment. The area wasn't clear of terrorists, and there were shafts and tunnels around us. Once they found a shaft right in the factory yard and had to evacuate us from there for a few hours, and another time a mortar fell near the building, opposite our position.

"One night we suddenly saw lights from the neighboring house. The place was supposed to be empty because the residents had evacuated. Then we also heard sounds of gunfire. We were sure it was in our direction and prepared to return fire. At the last moment, it turned out that one of the patrols had positioned themselves there and luckily a battle didn't break out between us and them."

Q: Did you think about the hostages and whether they were in the surrounding area?

S.: "After Dec. 15, the day when the hostages Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz, and Samar Fouad Talalka were mistakenly shot – that was the biggest fear."

L.: "I thought about how they might be a few houses away from us and we don't know. I hoped that during our time there, the forces would manage to rescue some of them. The space in Gaza changes all the time, and the biggest fear is shooting someone who looks like a terrorist and then finding out he's a hostage."

Q: Did you shoot at terrorists?

"I shot two," says S. "The first time was about a month after we entered Gaza. I wasn't on shift and was supposed to be resting but couldn't. My personal weapon was on me, and I was looking at the route through one of the cracks created by the Air Force bombings. Suddenly I saw two people. They were walking confidently and seemed to know where they were going. We couldn't see if they had firearms or knives. They could also be observers.

"One of the female snipers shot at them but missed and they ran to the side. We immediately got up. One of the female fighters and I shot in their direction with our personal weapons and saw them fall. A force of paratroopers approached them and checked them. It turned out that one of them was carrying an explosive device on his body and the other was probably his assistant. We had no doubt he came to blow himself up on the soldiers."

Q: Was this the first time you killed a person?

"Yes, but it didn't stress me out. I acted on autopilot. It's a terrorist, and there's a reason why we entered Gaza. The lives of the ground fighters are in my hands. It's either the terrorist or them. Afterward, the realization that I had taken a life sank in, but I didn't feel bad because he came to murder us. The terrorist with the booby-trapped Fiat, two weeks later, also came to kill soldiers. I don't have nightmares at night because of them."

L.: "I didn't get to kill terrorists because they didn't come during my shifts, and my main role was to locate and take down explosive drones in Gaza. I also got to participate in classified intelligence activity, which was unusual for the style of sniper work. However, I didn't forget my promise. Every morning there's a dawn readiness where terrorists come out, and we shoot and warn them not to approach. The first bullet was always dedicated to Aviel, may he rest in peace.

"In addition, I took part in an incident where a terrorist tried to blow himself up on the building. He came through the route and looked like a civilian, but walked in zigzags as if he was drunk or high. We got on the radio with one of the company commanders on the ground, and he asked us not to shoot so he could interrogate the civilian, who suddenly started smiling and waving his hands. Our commander asked us to still position ourselves near the windows. She decided to shoot near the civilian's feet, and it was lucky.

"He got scared, turned on his heels and ran. The company commander also asked the female sniper to shoot near his feet, and he stopped. Infantry fighters caught him, and it turned out he was carrying an explosive belt on his body. In such cases, you internalize the dangers and threats. There isn't a single relaxed second in Gaza."

The intensity and operational tension were occasionally interrupted by events that today make the female snipers smile. But in those days, they were tense and alert, and understood how thin the line was between eliminating a terrorist and hitting an innocent civilian.

"One night I saw a little girl on the route, maybe 4 years old," recalls L. "She was alone, dressed in pajamas, and holding a large bag that was dragging on the ground. We thought terrorists had sent her to discover our location, and that maybe there was an explosive device in the bag. There were many theories and possibilities, but it was decided to let her pass on the route without shooting in her direction. We felt sorry for her."

S.: "It was one of the more bizarre sights we saw there. The girl walked forward, but kept turning her head back towards us, as if she was looking for someone. She continued walking for long minutes until she disappeared from view.

"Even if the terrorists were trying to make us shoot at her or were trying to see how we react to a small child, I'm glad she wasn't hurt. Unlike them, to whom the girl's life wasn't important, we are humane."

Q: Did many civilians like her approach you by mistake?

S.: "Quite a few. This used to be their main street. I was just after a shift when an elderly man approached the building and a female sniper shot near his feet. Suddenly he started undressing and the shooting stopped because we saw he didn't have weapons or an explosive device. He took out a cigarette and then lowered his underwear, and continued to approach until he was out of the sniper rifle's range.

"I approached one of the holes in the wall and shot near his feet with my personal weapon. A fragment from the ground flew at him and hit near his genitals. He got scared, jumped to the side and stopped. Soldiers below approached him and took him for questioning, and then sent him back to the route. It was clear he wasn't right in the head. Since then, the soldiers called me 'the mohel'.

"He and the girl with the bag weren't the only bizarre stories, and I estimate that the terrorists wanted to constantly test our operational tension, and how alert we are. Maybe they were waiting for us to hurt civilians so they could complain about the IDF. Once there were children with bicycles, we shot near them and they ran away. Once we shot near a civilian who continued walking despite the warnings, we shot him in the leg and he fell and didn't move. We were sure he was dead, but suddenly he got up and ran quickly, despite the injury."

Lying in dust and mud

After about two months at the observation post in the factory, the female snipers left Gaza. S., who was about half a year from discharge, felt she had exhausted the period. "I missed my family and wanted to shower because I was full of dust," she says. "I even missed toilets, because I was tired of doing my business in bags. Although we maintained hygiene as much as possible, and I even have a picture with a cleansing mask on my face, it was still two months where we weren't completely clean."

L.: "In Gaza there was almost no contact with family at home or friends. I wanted to get updates and reassure my parents a bit. I knew what we did was very significant and that the moment they called me, I'd go back. They did call us about a month ago to join a specific activity in Rafah, with armored and Nahal forces.

"I'm still in regular service, but S. came this time as a reservist. In the end, they didn't need us and we returned to Israel after a few days. I felt that thanks to us there's more awareness of Bardelas and female snipers. The armored corps and Nahal specifically requested us, following our activity in Khan Yunis. They learned to appreciate us, and we love giving backup to other corps. If they call me to Gaza again, I'll show up without hesitation."

S.: "It seems to me that once I'm discharged from the reserves, I'm changing direction. If the war continues, I'll start working and not studying, so as not to interrupt the continuity if they call me back to reserves."

Compared to the Sisyphean nature and high intensity in which they functioned in Gaza, service on the Egyptian border now seems to S. and L. a bit like a summer camp. "I feel there are fewer smuggling attempts than before, and this is probably related to the war, but still you can't underestimate the importance of our activity," says S. "Any illegal weapons brought into Israel could end up with criminal organizations or be used for terrorism.

"Our job isn't simple, and it's not easy being a female sniper. We lie on rocks and dust, and in summer we sweat under our uniforms. In winter it's very cold, we get wet from the rain and covered in mud. One time, because there was such a heavy downpour, it took a long time until a vehicle managed to leave the base to collect us from the observation post."

Q: What qualities are required of a sniper?

S.: "A lot of patience, because we're thrown into the field for hours."

L.: "You also need composure and the ability to concentrate and disconnect from your surroundings."

Q: What's your advantage as female snipers compared to men?

S.: "Most men have ants in their pants, and women have more patience. We're capable of staring for hours through the scope without moving."

L.: "I think that in principle, the sniper role allows us to diversify. A regular soldier can't replace us, but we're also fighters. When we're not needed as snipers, we patrol with the soldiers.

"About two months before the war, the battalion received intelligence about a drug smuggling operation that would take place in a certain location. I went there with another female fighter, not as a sniper, and not far from there we saw an Israeli civilian walking around. He's always in the area when there are alerts about possible smuggling, and he always claims he's doing walks and sports.

"We approached him, and while doing so we called for a Border Police force. He insisted he came to hike and told irrelevant details about his partner. We played along as if we believed him, to buy time until the Border Police arrested him. Later we arrived at the point indicated by the intelligence, very close to where the civilian was wandering. There were smugglers who saw us and ran away, leaving behind four sacks. We opened them and inside were drugs."

Q: How does your environment react to the fact that you're serving in a role that doesn't have many women?

S. laughs: "They're supportive and very enthusiastic. When there's a Hollywood movie about female snipers, we'll know we've made our mark."

The post Focused and determined: The female snipers deterring threats to IDF forces in Gaza appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

For 55 harrowing days, Sapir Cohen endured captivity at the hands of Hamas in Gaza. Her ordeal began with her abduction from Nir Oz on October 7 and ended with her release in the final swap on November 30, 2023. However, her partner, Alex (Sasha) Trufanov, who was kidnapped alongside her, remains in captivity, held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In a revealing and exclusive interview with Israel Hayom, set to be published over the weekend, Cohen recounts the terrifying moments of her abduction, her confinement in tunnels and homes of Hamas operatives, the constant fear of sexual assault, and the hope she drew from seeing demonstrations in Israel demanding the hostages' release. Perhaps most startling is her account of an unexpected and frightening conversation with none other than Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader in Gaza.

"On day 51, a man who appeared to be a senior figure arrived and informed Sahar Calderon and Or Yaakov, my fellow captives, that they would be released the following day. He then turned to me and said I would be released too. One of the other captors mentioned that I was over 18, prompting him to ask if I was a soldier. When I said no, he inquired about my military service," she told Israel Hayom. "I felt my face turning red and found myself at a loss for words. Trying to recall what I had told my captors during the initial interrogation, I said I had been a clerk at the Kirya (the IDF military headquarters). He asked if I served in the reserves, and when I again replied no, he simply turned and left."

"It wasn't until after my return to Israel that I realized the identity of the man who had spoken to me. It was Yahya Sinwar himself, the Hamas leader in Gaza." When asked what she would have said to Sinwar had she recognized him, Cohen replied, "I wouldn't have asked anything." Sapir was released after 55 days in captivity during the final phase of the hostage deal on November 30, 2023. In recent weeks, Cohen has been addressing Jewish communities worldwide, including segments of the public who oppose a hostage deal.

"During my captivity, one of my captors called me to watch Al-Jazeera when they were showing footage of the Hostages Square [where the protests are held to secure their release]," she recalls. "I saw tens of thousands of Israelis united in purpose, and it filled me with hope. The captor smiled, interlocked his fingers into two fists, and said, 'When all the Jews are like this, it's strong, strong, strong. We'll wait a bit, there will be chaos among you.' It was then that I understood they are acutely aware of our vulnerabilities and know that our greatest threat comes from within.

"This is why we don't need to share the same opinions, but rather respect each other, practice tolerance, and remember that we're all one family. We cannot afford to be indifferent to human life, and we must do everything in our power to bring back Sasha and the remaining hostages. We can't allow them to be out of sight and out of mind. If we choose the wrong path, we risk facing even greater tragedies. While there's talk of dismantling Hamas, we seem to be moving towards dismantling the unity of Israel itself."

"The tunnels in Gaza are much narrower and darker, and everything is full of dampness, mold, and stench. You can't really get a sense of what the tunnels are like there," she added.

"The beginning was very difficult. I kept asking myself, 'God, why did you do this to me?'" she says. "There were moments when I had to collect food scraps from the floor or sleep in the same room with 10 Hamas operatives. I was afraid they would harm me, and I was scared of the many explosions I heard, not knowing where they were coming from."

The post 'He then asked if I was a soldier': Woman recalls frightening meeting with Hamas leader in captivity appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Abdel Rahman Al Jamal, a 63-year-old veteran of the Gaza legislative council, is deeply entrenched in Hamas' apparatus and has played a central role in the recent hostage crisis. In his book "Lexicon of the Hamas Movement," Guy Aviad, an expert in Palestinian terror organizations and Israel's military history, says Al Jamal was born in the Nuseirat refugee camp, Al Jamal began as a student of Islamic law before earning a doctorate and eventually serving as the dean of religious studies at Gaza's Islamic College. 

Video: Hostage rescue operation in Nuseirat refugee camp / Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

While not an official member of Hamas' military wing, Al Jamal stands accused of coordinating terrorist attacks by the wing against Egyptian forces in Sinai after meeting with the movement's leader Khaled Mashaal, according to an Egyptian indictment. His extended family, closely tied to the Hamas regime, is a wealthy clan owning several properties in Nuseirat, including the home where three of the four Israeli hostages rescued on Saturday were held captive for months.

The Al Jamal family's civilian hideout

One of the homes belonging to Al Jamal's clan became the place of captivity for Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv. The house is owned by a relative, Abdullah, a former journalist for the Hamas-affiliated Palestine Now news agency who had articles published in Al Jazeera. Abdullah's 74-year-old father, Ahmed Youssef, previously served as a senior adviser to former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and maintains ties to the current leadership, illustrating the family's prestige and connections within the regime.

For half a year, Hamas terrorists took over the upper floor of this spacious Al Jamal family home in Nuseirat, holding the three hostages under armed guard. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the captives were confined to a single room with thin mattresses to sleep on, passing time playing cards and learning Arabic. Kozlov, a recent Russian immigrant to Israel, also learned Hebrew. Access to television was rare, and any violation of the strict rules imposed by their captors resulted in punishment, including confinement in the bathroom or threats of execution.

Shockingly, throughout this ordeal, the Al Jamal family members, children included, continued residing on the lower floor of the house where the kitchen was located. On one occasion when the family left, the hostages were permitted to use the kitchen facilities. When IDF forces eventually stormed the home to free the captives, Abdullah, his father, and wife were killed in the operation. 

An IDF statement following the raid highlighted how "the hostages were held alongside Abdullah's family members in his family's home," condemning it as "further evidence that the Hamas terror organization uses the civilian population as human shields."

This tactic extended to Noa Argamani, another hostage rescued from an apartment merely 200 meters away from the Al Jamal residence. Images of the room where she was held, circulated on Arab social media, revealed a closet, bed, and two dolls – small comforts amid the harsh conditions she endured while confined for months and forced to remain silent to avoid angering her captors. Argamani later stated the house belonged to a wealthy Nuseirat family who told her she was fortunate to be held by them rather than others, suggesting the Al Jamal clan may have been involved in that holding location as well.

Hamas' widespread civilian hideout network

The Al Jamal clan's role in the hostage crisis exemplifies how Hamas cynically exploits Gaza's civilian population to further its military objectives. While the terror group's indiscriminate use of human shields is well-documented, the recent hostage crisis reveals a new depth of depravity in embedding captives within civilian homes and neighborhoods.

As captives have been freed or rescued, their testimonies, coupled with insights from security officials and analysts, have gradually exposed Hamas' modus operandi of concealing hostages at the heart of Gaza's civil society. The operation's success, despite Israel's lacking a physical intelligence presence in Gaza for two decades, underscores the terrorist group's effectiveness in this regard – at least initially.

Hostages reported being shuttled between various hideout apartments during their captivity, occasionally transported in ambulances or disguised in traditional Arab attire to avoid detection. Argamani recounted encountering other captives like Itay Svirsky and Yossi Sharabi, who were murdered in captivity, during these transfers. Meir Jan corroborated that he, Kozlov, and Ziv were repeatedly moved between hiding apartments by their Hamas captors.

Some hostages, like the Marman and Limberg families abducted from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, were held in vacant apartments with no residing families. Mia Limberg, 17, held in Gaza for 53 days, described being kept on the second floor of a Rafah home that had been evacuated, surrounded by a "civilian neighborhood" with the "voices of vendors and children" audible from the streets.

"The neighborhood was full of Hamas people, and those who guarded us were terrorists," Limberg recounted. "The terrorists told us not to make noise because if they heard us, they would come and murder us." The constant sounds of IDF bombings heightened her terror, as she feared the building's collapse would expose their location, resulting in mob violence or execution by their captors.

Released captives like Limberg aided the IDF's subsequent operation to extract the remaining hostages in that Rafah apartment, Luis Herr and Fernando Simon Marman. 

"We were in an apartment of a family in Rafah, on the second floor, but the family wasn't there, only our guards," Herr recalled. "We heard people's voices and mostly the bombings from the IDF. It was clear there was a war between Israel and Gaza."

Hamas' trusted civilian confidants

This extensive network of civilian hideouts stems from Hamas' longstanding embeddedness within Gaza's social fabric, having originated as a grassroots movement before evolving into a terrorist entity and de facto government. Over the years, the group has developed operational procedures for concealing operatives in designated apartments amid the general population, extending this protocol to hiding kidnapped Israeli soldiers like Nachshon Wachsman and Gilad Schalit.

Gilad Schalit, who was kidnapped to Gaza in 2006, was held for five years in hiding apartments in the strip. He was guarded by an isolated group of Hamas terrorists who were part of the organization's "shadow unit." "This is a very small group, completely cut off from the world, whose job is to guard prisoners 24/7 for an extended period," Aviad said. "It's a focused group of professional terrorists whose job is this." However, the "shadow unit" members, like hiding apartments, are a limited resource. It seems that ahead of Oct. 7, Hamas prepared a plethora of hiding apartments and detention facilities in tunnels throughout the strip.

As for the families entrusted with "hosting" captives in their homes, they are meticulously vetted based on multigenerational ties and absolute fealty to Hamas' ideology, often cemented through intermarriages. 

"These are connections that go back years, and as a result, trust develops between the sides, which is the key word here," explained Harel Chorev, a historian tracking Hamas networks. "Hamas is heavily embedded within the population, usually through certain families identified with it...Once Hamas managed to penetrate this space, it became an inherent part of the identity of those clans."

While some experts suggest intimidation plays a role, most assert genuine ideological belief and loyalty take precedence. "Apart from the loyalty and belief in Hamas' way, that family father knows that if he doesn't cooperate with Hamas, they'll separate his head from his body," noted former Shin Bet coordinator Adi Carmi. "And yet, in my opinion, fear is the least significant component. The main component is trust."

However, researcher Ronit Marzan offers a different perspective, portraying Gaza's civilians as hostages themselves under Hamas' oppressive rule. "Gaza residents who have fled say that anyone left in Gaza has no choice but to cooperate with Hamas and remain silent," she said, citing reports of brutal reprisals against entire families for any dissent, including torture, imprisonment, and denial of healthcare and jobs.

Overcoming intelligence obstacles

The use of trusted civilian confidants to hide captives significantly impeded Israeli intelligence efforts to locate the hostages. "People who are ostensibly uninvolved and not known as operatives of the military wing are people the Israeli intelligence may not necessarily be familiar with," Carmi acknowledged. "And indeed, we see that this method works."

For two decades following Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, the Shin Bet lacked a physical presence in the territory, relying primarily on signals intelligence. However, the widespread ground operation during the recent conflict enabled human intelligence gathering through interrogations and local sources, allowing the agency to gradually piece together the hostages' likely locations.

Carmi continued, "After the IDF entered the area, the Shin Bet began striving for contact, until eventually it succeeded in locating where the captives were being held. Once you start arresting people, interrogating them and operating them, you learn the area at a much higher resolution."

It is crucial to note that the "strategic" captives who remain in Hamas' grip are IDF soldiers seized during combat operations, including the observation officers from Nahal Oz. According to Shin Bet officials and security experts consulted, these prisoners represent Hamas' final bargaining chips, which the group will be highly reluctant to relinquish to Israel.

Unlike the hostages held in civilian homes, it is likely that these captive soldiers are not being detained above ground, but rather in designated subterranean facilities Hamas constructed specifically for this purpose. These holding sites are believed to be located deep within the tunnel networks underlying Rafah and Khan Younis.

Consensus among the officials indicates that the living conditions endured by these captive military personnel are considerably harsher than those experienced by hostages sheltered in residential dwellings above ground.

Thus far, the sole female soldier rescued from Hamas captivity through a military operation is Ori Megidish, who was extracted from within Gaza during the early stages of the war. However, according to some sources, even Megidish was not held in a tunnel complex, but rather in a private residential home.

The post How Hamas keeps hostages in the heart of Gaza, alongside families, children appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Holocaust survivor Ruth Haran from Kibbutz Be'eri can barely sleep at night. Sometimes she has dreams in which she runs, running out of air and with no direction, not knowing from whom she is fleeing or why. Until a week ago, when something changed, and for the first time she dreamt of her firstborn son, Avshalom, who was murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.

"My son told me that he is not in the casket we buried him in, and I still can't understand the dream," Ruth says, her voice breaking. "When I woke up, I didn't eat or drink all day. The terrorists murdered Avshalom and desecrated his body. I miss him so much, I miss him asking 'Mom, how's it going?'. I carry his picture with me and speak to him all the time."

Similarly, Ruth's fellow kibbutz member and also a Holocaust survivor, Haim Ra'anan, 89, went through what he described as a second Holocaust on Oct. 7. 

"Never in my life did I imagine that as a Holocaust survivor, I would be hiding in fear for my life again. The massacre wiped out about 10% of Be'eri's 1,000 residents. Over 100 were murdered or abducted to the Gaza Strip that day. For me, there was one huge difference between Oct. 7 and the Holocaust. 

"During the Shoah, I did not personally know the six million who perished, but in the Be'eri massacre, I knew almost every single person who was killed."

The lives of Ruth and Haim are intertwined with tragedies. They are two of about 865 Israelis from the south who experienced firsthand two of the most horrific atrocities committed against Jews. According to data from the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry, about 2,000 Holocaust survivors from across Israel were evacuated from their homes in the aftermath of the Hamas onslaught.

Ruth, who barely escaped the horrors of the Nazis in Romania, immigrated to Israel and settled in the south. At no point did she imagine that at age 88, while living in the Promised Land, she would yet again face a horrific massacre, which she too said felt like a second Holocaust. Hamas terrorists not only murdered her son, but also took hostage seven of her family members, including her daughter, daughter-in-law, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

A few months ago, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Ruth led the Public Diplomacy Directorate's international campaign. Gigantic billboards with her pain-filled face with the word "SURVIVOR" below were hung in front of the United Nations headquarters and in Times Square in New York. In a chilling video, she spoke about the horrifying similarity between the acts of the Nazis and Hamas terrorists. 

"When babies are murdered in their cots, when women are raped, thrown to the ground and murdered, viciously, satanically, innocents – that's a Holocaust!" she says in the video. 

"I'm always asked about the similarities between the Holocaust and Oct. 7,  and I answer that in both cases there was a deliberate, systematic, evil, and completely satanic destruction. The Holocaust is the darkest stain in the history of the 20th century. A trauma for all of humanity, which caused the devaluation of human life.

"As time goes by, the memory of the Holocaust becomes more difficult and raises questions of 'why?'. How could such a thing happen? It's a monstrous puzzle that makes it difficult to understand the fabric of human experience. The Nazis tattooed numbers on the arms of Jews in the death camps with one goal: to break their Jewish identity.

"This is exactly what the terrorists did on Oct. 7. When IDF soldiers came to evacuate me from the house – after I had been besieged for about 24 hours – I saw sights I will never forget. The body of a neighbor was lying in the yard and babies and children were strewn on the lawns. I also saw a bloody crib. The terrorists turned our paradise into hell."

"A quiet place, until tragedy struck"

Since Oct. 7, Ruth has taken on another title in addition to being a Holocaust survivor. She is now also an evacuee. While her fellow Be'eri residents have been staying at a Dead Sea Hotel and are preparing to move to Kibbutz Hatzerim, she has spent the last few months in a nursing home in Beersheba. A month ago, she asked to return for the first time to the decimated kibbutz, where she had moved for Avshalom. 

"I couldn't stop crying at the destruction and ruin," Ruth said, her voice breaking again. "Parts of my house survived, but Avshalom's house was completely burned down. Nothing was left of it. I moved to Be'eru three years ago, after living 40 years in Omer. I loved the kibbutz life, the orchards, the groves, the fields, and the blossoms. It's a community of good, hard-working, and creative people."

The tragedies Ruth has endured are reflected in her somber eyes. Although she has reached old age, she looks younger than 88 and her mind is sharp. 

"My mother once said I was born unlucky because winds of war were blowing across Europe," Ruth recounted, describing her childhood in Bucharest, Romania. "I was the youngest of four children in a time when the Fascist Benito Mussolini ruled in Italy, the dictator Francisco Franco ruled in Spain, and in Romania, the antisemitic Iron Guard movement persecuted Jews."

Ruth's family suffered from relentless persecution by the Nazis. "After the Germans flooded half of Russia and all of Ukraine, we traveled by train for weeks to Uzbekistan."

In 1945, at the end of World War II, Ruth's family moved to Kishinev, Moldova, which was under Soviet rule, and her father was appointed a medical inspector to eradicate typhus. 

"Unfortunately, my father contracted the disease and died. My mother searched for a week to find a Jewish cemetery until she found one in Bessarabia. After the burial, we returned to Bucharest with money an uncle sent us, but my mother had already decided we would immigrate to Israel. Judaism was part of us throughout the Holocaust. We always remembered our religion and celebrated all the holidays."

At age 18, while serving in the military, Ruth met her late husband, Haim. The two wed in 1958 and soon after their firstborn, Avshalom, was born. 

"He was wonderful," Ruth said of her son, crying. "A special child and a special man. After him, my son Ronen was born, who lives in Australia, and my daughter Sharon Avigdori, who was abducted to Gaza and has since been released. I moved to Be'eri after undergoing surgery. I had cancer and I hope I've recovered."

Q: Weren't you worried about the proximity to Gaza or the rockets?

"I've lived in the Negev all my life. Be'eri was a comfortable, quiet place until tragedy struck. That morning, [when the sirens first began] I almost didn't go into the shelter [due to how often sirens are heard in communities bordering the strip]. I heard knocks on the door, so I opened it. There were two Hamas terrorists there. I wasn't afraid. I looked them in the eyes. Suddenly they turned around and left, because someone called them, and I ran inside."

Q: Where did you find the courage?

"Maybe because of my childhood and what I went through. My father was a pacifist and an idealist, and I'm like him. He gave me good tools to cope. When I think of Oct. 7 now, it angers me and pains me. Why was I lucky but not my son? Someone watched over me during the Holocaust and on that day too, but not over my son whom everyone loved. He was killed after leaving the bomb shelter to warn people not to come to Be'eri." 

On Oct. 7, which was the Simhat Torah holiday, Avshalom, 66, and his wife Shoshan, 67, hosted his sister Sharon and her daughter Noam, 12, as well as their daughter Adi, 38, and her husband Tal Shoham, 39, and their children Naveh, 8, and Yahel, 3.

Except for Avshalom, everyone was taken hostage. Everyone, except for Tal, was released in November as part of a temporary ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. Tal remains captive in Gaza. 

"I didn't sleep until they returned," Ruth shared. "I carried a prayer in my heart that they would return healthy and whole. In the past I was a family therapist, I established a center for the treatment of sexual abuse in Beersheba, and I hear that's what happens to women in captivity. I was very worried for my female family members, all of whom are beautiful, and I'm glad that this did not happen to them.

Q: After all you've been through in nine decades, do you have any optimism left? 

"I'm full of admiration for the people who run the nursing home I'm staying at and for those who live here, who are middle-class Holocaust survivors. There are so many good people here and it gives me strength. So does the younger generation. I see the girls fighting for their captive fathers and the beautiful, strong, and conscientious widows. Everyone has such high values and it's touching. Perhaps from this, a better people will emerge, assuming we don't let some ministers in the government ruin our lives."

"Terrorists entered the homes of all my children" 

For 20 hours, from 6 a.m. on that cursed Saturday morning until they were evacuated at 2 a.m., 89-year-old Haim Ra'anan barricaded himself, along with his caregiver, son, and grandson, in the shelter of his house in Kibbutz Be'eri. His wife was not home as she had traveled with her two brothers to Tel Aviv.

They couldn't go out, or even make a sound, and the rumors reaching them on WhatsApp were horrifying: terrorists had invaded the kibbutz, entered homes, murdered, and abducted friends. 

Even the evacuation itself took a while. 

"Strong soldiers put me in a wheelchair and began taking me out," Haim recounted. "It took us an hour and a half to travel 300 or 400 meters to the assembly point at the kibbutz gate. Throughout the evacuation, we heard the gunfire and saw the explosions and burning buildings. At that moment, you're not thinking about it, you're still in survival mode.

"The whole story took place under fire, amid combat. Someone living in my building was shot in the stomach and eventually died. Each time the soldiers looked around and said, 'Wait here for a moment, we need to check the area and see if everything is okay.'

"All my grandchildren live along that street. Every time we reached where a granddaughter lived, I told the soldiers: 'Have you evacuated this house yet? What's happening with them?'"

Q: Were you in touch with your family that morning?

"Yes, but in essence, I only knew everyone was okay when I got to the bus. I don't know how to describe that luck. In the apartment next to one of my granddaughters, the father and baby were killed by gunfire. The terrorists didn't enter my house but did succeed in entering the homes of all my grandchildren, without exception. Luckily, they all survived. For one granddaughter, they started burning the house, and she and her family escaped through the window and went to the shelter of other neighbors. A miracle."

"I had no childhood"

Haim was born in 1935 in Hungary. When World War II broke out, his father was already in pre-state Israel, paving the way for his family's immigration.

"My entire childhood, that I didn't have essentially, I was far from my father," he described. "The only picture I have from that period is of me with my mother in the Jewish ghetto, wearing a yellow patch on our clothes. As a child in Hungary, when the violence and hatred toward Jews increased, we were forced to wear a yellow patch and our family home was marked with a swastika to identify us as Jews. It was done to dehumanize, terrorize, and isolate us from the rest of society.

"Eight decades later, I was horrified to see the Star of David painted again on Jewish homes across Europe to mark and intimidate them in the wake of the devastating Oct. 7 massacre. It's so similar to the antisemitic marking of homes that I experienced in my childhood, it's chilling. I never imagined something like that could happen again in Europe."

Q: What do you remember from your childhood in Hungary?

"Like I said, as a child living in the Jewish ghetto, I essentially had no childhood. It was robbed of it because of persecution and war. We were always looking for food, living in constant tension about how the day would unfold. Would we be deported? Would we have enough food to last another day? Would we survive the harassment, terror, and killings?

"One day, my family heard that the militia was looking for us. We couldn't escape the ghetto, so we just waited for them to come. It didn't take long before we heard a knock on the door. When we opened it, we saw three militiamen at our doorstep. As they entered, one of them removed his hat, and, to our surprise, my grandfather recognized him.

"He was a distant relative who had come to our home with official papers from the Swedish embassy that granted us a certain diplomatic protection. With those precious papers, we were able to move to the 'international ghetto' in Budapest, which was designated for Jews and their families who held protective papers from a neutral country. We managed to survive there until the Soviets arrived, and we were among the lucky few because nearly 80% of Hungarian Jewry perished."

The precious documents were issued by Swedish architect Raoul Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. Interestingly, Haim now temporarily resides on Wallenberg Street in Tel Aviv. 

He is a grandfather to 19 grandchildren and a great-grandfather to 14 great-grandchildren, and his age during the Holocaust was the same as one of his grandchildren with whom he sheltered on Oct. 7.

Q: What did you go through on that terrible morning? 

"I heard continuous sirens in the kibbutz. At first, I thought it was 'just' another rocket attack from Gaza, like the ones we had already grown accustomed to. No one could have predicted the massacre that took place. Shortly after, we began receiving reports that Hamas terrorists were all over the kibbutz and trying to break into shelters. The terrorists set fire to many homes to force the residents out, but many preferred to die in the fires than be murdered by the terrorists.

"I was extremely lucky that the terrorists did not reach my home and that my entire family living throughout the kibbutz survived the massacre. I don't know what I would have done if one of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren had been abducted to Gaza."

Addressing European ambassadors

On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Haim was invited to speak before the ambassadors of the European Union in Israel, as part of a project that was also featured in Germany and the United States. 

Haim shared with the ambassadors how he grew up in Hungary, survived the Holocaust against all odds, and was one of the founding members of Kibbutz Be'eri that was decimated by Hamas on Oct. 7. 

He called on the diplomats to make sure history does not repeat itself and urged them to fight against the spread of antisemitism and support Israel's efforts in returning the hostages home.

"In the shadow of grief and sorrow – optimism and hope as well"

Haim and Ruth were photographed for the Humans of Israel – 7th of October project, created by photographer and lecturer Erez Kaganovitz. 

"Since the terrible attack on Israel on Oct. 7, my world, like that of many others in the country and around the globe – stopped," he told Israel Hayom. "On that day, and in its aftermath, hundreds of stories of heroism and hope emerged from many sectors of Israeli society. People like Haim, Ruth, and many others, did everything possible to survive and save lives.

"Following countless inspiring stories I was exposed to, I decided to create the exhibition, which tells the stories in a unique way and brings – in the shadow of grief and sorrow – optimism and hope as well."

The post 'As Holocaust survivor, I never imagined I would be hiding in the kibbutz I founded' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

When walking by the terrorists from Hamas' Nukhba unit, I saw no change in the facial expression of the commander of the Israel Prison Service security team, Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Mowafaq Asakla, who oversees a prison facility whose location is prohibited from publication. 

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They had arrived a month and a half earlier and passed in front of Asakla, handcuffed to each other in chains and wearing blindfolds, dressed in the brown uniforms of security prisoners. 

Video: Security camera footage of Hamas terrorists infiltrating gas station in Israel

One by one they were brought into a side room and sat down on a round chair in front of a camera and bright light, but instead of the usual mugshot, they were photographed against the backdrop of the Israeli flag. 

"One of them looked at me and started wailing," Asakla said in an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom. "He cried, said he was just a construction worker who came to Israel to find work and that he had no money for food for his children. He kept saying, 'I'm a worker, I'm a worker. I didn't do anything.'

"He tried to get me to pity him. I didn't reply and didn't look in his direction. All that was going through my mind were the terrible videos [of atrocities committed on Oct. 7] that Hamas had uploaded on Telegram. The next day I found out who he was when I saw his personal belongings. He was not a worker, he was a murderer who had killed a young [Israeli] woman and her young son in cold blood, who had used a knife while they were alive and then shot them in the head. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"I felt sick. I cannot comprehend where such evil comes from. It's important to maintain professionalism when dealing with terrorists, but I admit that it's hard for me to look at him. He disgusts me. On the outside, I'm a poker face, but inside my soul is in turmoil. When I learned of his actions, I couldn't fall asleep. That night I got on my motorcycle and drove around for hours."

Asakla, a Druze from northern Israel, is one of several people responsible for the imprisonment of dozens of Oct. 7 terrorists. For many days he and his guards were in closest contact with the embodiment of evil and cruelty on earth, bloodthirsty monsters whose burning hatred equals that of the Nazis. Despite this, the Israel Prison Service follows the minimum conditions required for prisoners. The cells of the terrorists are small, without lighting, and without separation between the toilets and showers. The contact with them is minimal, straight-to-the-point, without small talk and without a basic interest in their actions or feelings.

Lt. Col. Shachar Kamisa, the second-in-command, explained, "These prisoners have nothing to lose. They know that for the horrific acts that they have committed, they will not just receive one or two years in prison. That is why our vigilance is sky-high, especially while opening the doors to do a headcount. Now they have no weapons, they are subdued and scared, but their danger is mental. No one knows what's going through their minds. They talk among themselves quietly, and we take into account that they might be planning to hurt the guards and maybe even escape.

"These are criminals who had murdered, raped, burned, and looted, and their ideology, which is rooted in the destruction of the Jewish people and Israel, did not stop on Oct. 7. In prison, it can even intensify. Our job is to stop any attempted uprising. We will not let them raise their heads. They now understand that they are in Israel, not Gaza." 

The Israel Prison Service has seven prisons designated for security prisoners alone: Meggido, Gilboa, and Damon in the north, where women and juveniles are also held; Ofer in central Israel; and Ktzi'ot, Nafha, and Ramon in the south. Of the 19,200 prisoners, 7,500 are security prisoners who were arrested for various terror activities. About 2,300 of them are terrorists who were arrested on Oct. 7. How many of them belong to Hamas' Nukhba unit is unknown as the Shin Bet security agency refrains from publishing this information for security reasons. 

They are considered highly dangerous and are held in a separate wing in the facility and do not come into contact with other security prisoners, including the armed men and the civilians who took part in the ISIS-style brutal attack on the south. 

The Nukhba terrorists arrived at the facility on Nov. 9 after having been investigated by the Shin Bet, Israel Police, and the IDF. Upon their arrival, they were registered and were examined by a medic. Although with cuffs on their hands and feet at all times, they were constantly supervised and escorted by guards. 

Some prisoner files included photographs of terrorists kneeling on the floor, with their eyes covered, crying. Gone are the murderers who were equipped with shoulder-fired missiles and Kalashnikovs. 

When escorted to their wing, the prisoners are chained together and led through the corridors bent over and their faces turned toward the ground. 

The wing designated to these terrorists is ascetic. In the center, there is a concrete plaza, the floor of which was painted light blue, but has faded over time, and above is a metal ceiling without any way to see the sky. Around, shaped like the letter H, are the prisoners' cells, all of which have iron doors, also painted blue, and Israeli flags hanging on the outside. Opposite is the guards' control center, with safety glass and computers and screens showing the cells and recording every action. 

Their cells are also smaller than usual, each with 5-8 inmates. There are no lockers or pictures inside, only iron bunk beds with a floor toilet, sink, and shower at the entrance. The toilet is surrounded by a low white wall that provides privacy only if bent down. As mentioned above, the light is never on in these cells, contrary to other cells with security prisoners. 

They also have no windows, and the terrorists are surrounded by sealed concrete, stay in almost complete darkness, and are unable to distinguish between day and night. The openings in the doors, which are used to peek inside or insert food trays, are also hermetically closed. The weak and minimal light enters through an opening with a dense mesh, which also allows for the passage of air. The oxygen reaches the rooms through vents installed above the doors.

The terrorists do not have an extensive daily routine. They have their handcuffs on most of the time and only leave their cell for a medical examination. Three times a day – morning, noon, and evening – they are counted. The door can only be opened by an officer in the presence of two guards and a security team nearby. One such security team is headed by Asakla. 

Each one is equipped with a vest, neck guard, helmet with goggles, walkie-talkies, pepper spray, and batons that stick into the back of the vest and resemble a ninja sword. They also have hand-held body shields in case of a riot. During the headcount, the terrorists stay inside the cell and the guards are not allowed to cross the threshold. 

As such, the cell door opens only for a few seconds a day. As for the food, the guards insert it, as mentioned above, in a special opening in the door, which is then closed immediately. The food that the Nukhba terrorists receive is simple. Throughout the day, there are no mattresses in the cells. They are brought in in the evening and removed again in the morning. 

Israeli music also plays in the wing every day. According to the Prison Service, it is meant to uplift the morale of the guards, but one can imagine that it also drives the prisoners out of their minds, especially hearing the Israeli national anthem play on repeat. 

From the moment it became known that these terrorists were going to arrive, the head of the Israel Prison Service, Katy Perry, ordered the training of the prison guards for the arrival of the murderous prisoners. They learned about the importance of separating emotions and showing composure and took Krav Maga lessons. The guards also went through psychological evaluations to make sure they were mentally ready to oversee a group of terrorists who had brutally murdered women, children, and the elderly. 

Kamisa said, "We made sure the guards wouldn't panic. The psychologist was impressed by the team at the facility and noted that the guards are committed to their jobs and are highly motivated. Their feeling, and that of everyone here, is that we are part of the fighting. We did not fight terrorists in the Gaza periphery, but we are the ones who are now keeping them from repeating their despicable acts. For all of us here, this is not a job but a mission." 

Q: And if one of the guards decided that it was too much, what would happen? 

"I would talk to him and try to understand his situation. A guard who is unable to mentally deal with terrorists and the atrocities can move to another position. We will figure it out because it is not easy to be in such close contact with terrorists 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So far, no one has asked to be removed from the position. We have regular conversations with the welfare officer, and he comes to the briefings before the shifts, listens to the conversation between the guards, and speaks to them privately if he has any concerns. We act sensitively, especially with guards who are residents of the south and surrounding areas."

One such guard is 21-year-old Sgt. 1st Class Oren Reuveni, from a settlement near Gaza. He enlisted at the age of 18 and completed his military service as a prison guard, which he continued as a career officer. On the morning of Oct. 7, Reuveni was at home. During the incessant missile fire, he went to his mother's house, where his two brothers, aged 17 and 8, also live. 

"When I got there, we were told to lock ourselves in the shelter. Twenty-five terrorists infiltrated the moshav, and the emergency squad stopped some of them at the fence. Fifteen managed to get in. A short time later, the electricity went out and there was no cell phone reception. We didn't know what was going on outside. I looked out the window and saw the terrorists walking around my street with green ribbons on their foreheads, shooting everywhere. It looked like a war movie. We did not have a weapon at home, and as such, were unprotected. 

"I grabbed my 17-year-old brother and told him that it was our job to protect our mother and little brother. We took knives from the kitchen and I told him that if the terrorists came in I would jump on them first and then him and that we would fight with all our might. Fortunately, the emergency squad was able to stop the terrorists. We were lucky because not far from there, there was a group of 80 more terrorists. We later found out that they had maps of the moshav, including the amount of people living in each house. They were eliminated by the tank crewmen. 

"We were in the shelter for three days, without electricity, and didn't know about the massacre. Only when we were evacuated did I find out about the magnitude of the tragedy. A friend who was with me in kindergarten was murdered, a friend from Moshav Sufa was murdered, three people from the moshav who were on their way home were murdered, as were several of my friends from Be'eri. My friend's grandfather was murdered, and the grandmother, Adina Moshe, was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz to Gaza and was among the first to be released. The terrorists did not harm my biological family, but they harmed my social family."

Q: How do you get through the day working in such close proximity to the people who perpetrated the atrocities you just described? 

"The day I was told that I would be guarding the Nukhba terrorists, I was in shock. How could I go to work and face them? What would happen when I saw them? What would I do if there was an interaction? I knew that no matter how charged, angry, and grieving I was, the emotions would remain outside the prison walls. Every shift I stand outside for a moment, take two or three breaths, then go inside with an inner feeling of victory, because I managed to cross the gate. It's not easy. I'm responsible for the people who murdered my friends and my neighbors."

Not only did Reuveni lose friends on Oct. 7, but his family had to evacuate with almost no belongings. Despite this, he feels he is no different from his colleagues. 

"The whole country is in trauma," he says. "Mine is just a little bigger. The first day I saw the terrorists, I had mixed feelings – hatred and joy. Here I was, free, and here they were, imprisoned."

Q: How much direct contact have you had with them? 

"I am in front of them during the headcounts, and at first I restrained myself from getting angry. Maybe they were the ones in my moshav? Maybe they were the ones who murdered the people I know? Maybe they burned houses and abused civilians? I quickly rebooted my brain. I looked them in the eyes several times so that they would see that I was not afraid of them. To this day, I try to understand the intensity of hatred that led to the murder of babies, the rape of young women, and the abuse of corpses."

Q: Have you ever spoken to them? 

"In the end, it's just a job. Stand up, bring a medic, and that's it. Sometimes I speak to them in Hebrew on purpose, because I want to show them that they didn't manage to destroy us. You tried to make us disappear – and you'll see our flag in front of you. We are a strong country and we are here to stay. You did not defeat us." 

Reuveni is not the only one with special circumstances. Kamisa too is from the south and Asakla has several family members serving in or near the Gaza Strip, about whom he worries. 

Asakla said, "I have three nephews who are being recruited to fight now. One is a career officer, the other is in the reserves in an elite unit and both are deep in the fighting, not far from my brother-in-law who serves in the reserves as a medic. My brother is in the reserves in the Home Front Command, and another nephew was called up for reserve duty as a technical staff member. Sometimes my heart contracts because I am not in Gaza, because those who work in security are not reservists, but this is my battlefield. The war here is more mental than physical. We are the closest to the terrorists and we are the ones who look them in the eye.

"The day they arrived I was full of emotions. I remembered how one of my nephews called in tears when he participated in the removal of bodies from the Nova party. I remember his stories every shift. Sometimes I stand aside, close my eyes for a few seconds and remember that you have to stay professional in front of these rapists and murderers."

Q: Do they ever try to speak to you or the guards who speak Arabic? 

"Not really. Once I heard one of them curse Hamas and [its leader in Gaza Yahya] Sinwar, and I'm sure it was a show for us. To gain our pity, they say that Sinwar brought them to this situation. It won't help them. They can't hide the evil in their eyes. Without the handcuffs, they would be trying to kill us too."

Q: Is that a possibility that you keep in mind? 

"Of course. That's why we're always on high alert. What worries me the most is an attack on a guard. Every time the cell door opens and we face the terrorists, the vigilance is at its peak."

Q: And when your shift is over, how do you disconnect? 

"My wife is an emotion-focused therapist, so she suggested that I practice Yoga. It was strange to me, and I'd rather ride my motorcycle or go down to my olive grove. That's where I clear my head."

When the war broke out, Perry decided to take the security prisoners' living conditions down a notch, some of whom have been in prison for many years. Hamas terrorists who are not members of the Nukhba unit are held in the same conditions and in isolated wings. These are armed men and civilians who participated in the murders, burning of houses, and looting. 

All seven prisons entered a status known as "lockdown", in which the prisoners are not allowed to leave the cells, except for one when a prison doesn't have a shower in the cell. In such a case, the guards take the inmates to take a short shower. The prisoners cannot go to the canteen or for a daily walk and are no longer allowed to cook in their room. 

All electrical appliances were removed, including televisions, kettles, electric hot plates, and fans. At the same time, the electricity was cut off from the sockets in the wall, preventing them from trying to charge smuggled phones. Visits by family members are completely prohibited. 

At the beginning of the war, the prisoners tried to contact each other, disrupted the daily schedule, and shouted "Allahu Akbar" every time a missile alert went off. The Shin Bet would remove any such inmate and send him to solitary confinement. The same punishment was given to two minors who, when taken to take a shower, tried to tear down the Israeli flag. 

Another guard overlooking the Oct. 7 terrorists, who are not members of the Nukhba unit, is Sgt. 1st Class Zohar Elazari, who recently completed her military service. 

"From the very beginning I was told that the work with the Oct. 7 prisoners cannot be conducted based on emotions, even though everyone is charged," she said. "I don't exchange a word with the terrorists, not even during the distribution of food. I feel sick at work, and it doesn't matter if they are from Nukhba or not. The terrorists from Gaza infiltrated the country to destroy us, Israelis.

"It feels like I've aged a decade in the past two months, since finishing my military service. I've stopped watching footage of Oct. 7 or watching the news, because there is a limit to how much evil you can absorb. I'm strong, I dealt with a sister who died three years ago from cancer, so I don't let myself get depressed. Only at home do I go back to being mom and dad's little girl, and make sure to talk to them about everything, just not about the terrorists."

Q: Do your friends ever ask you about your work? 

"Everyone asks me how I am able to look at the faces of these murderers, but that is my job. When I am not in the correctional facility, I do everything not to sink. We are part of the war. We have always guarded security prisoners, but now it is more significant. We are a buffer between them and the citizens of the country.

"Some of us kill terrorists in Gaza and some protect the citizens from the terrorists. This is my contribution to the war. Our work is dangerous because hundreds of murderous terrorists are around us every day, and it is only thanks to our toughness and professionalism that they keep quiet."

The guards also participated in the hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, walked beside them, and handed them over to the Red Cross. 

The release led to several instances of lies and slander against Israel. Most notably that of 18-year-old Mohammed Nazal, who after being released appeared on video with his hands bandaged, claiming he had been beaten in Israeli prison, only for Israel Prison Service footage taken during the exchange to reveal that he was healthy upon release. 

In the same round was released 22-year-old Ahed Tamimi, considered an "icon" of Palestinian resistance, who claimed on Palestinian media outlets that she had been denied food and water during her imprisonment and was tortured by the guards. 

Asakla was present at every round of exchange. 

"I gave one of the freed women a bottle of water, and then I read in the Arab media that she claimed that the guards dragged her and shouted at her," he said. "I wasn't offended, but it hurt me that they were trying to portray us as inhumane. I was also next to Nazal who got on the bus, all smiles. I don't take it personally, but it makes me angry that this is how the world sees us. I tried to concentrate only on the hostages who returned home."

Elazari too participated in several hostage release rounds. 

"I accompanied some of the female prisoners to the bathroom and they were a little rude, but it didn't interest me," she said. "I didn't look at their smiles or poses. It's a waste of our The guards also participated in the hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, walked beside them, and handed them over to the Red Cross. 

The release led to several instances of lies and slander against Israel. Most notably that of 18-year-old Mohammed Nazal, who after being released appeared on video with his hands bandaged, claiming he had been beaten in Israeli prison, only for Israel Prison Service footage taken during the exchange to reveal that he was healthy upon release. 

In the same round was released 22-year-old Ahed Tamimi, considered an "icon" of Palestinian resistance, who claimed on Palestinian media outlets that she had been denied food and water during her imprisonment and was tortured by the guards. 

Asakla was present at every round of exchange. 

"I gave one of the freed women a bottle of water, and then I read in the Arab media that she claimed that the guards dragged her and shouted at her," he said. "I wasn't offended, but it hurt me that they were trying to portray us as inhumane. I was also next to Nazal who got on the bus, all smiles. I don't take it personally, but it makes me angry that this is how the world sees us. I tried to concentrate only on the hostages who returned home."

Elazari too participated in several hostage release rounds. 

"I accompanied some of the female prisoners to the bathroom and they were a little rude, but it didn't interest me," she said. "I didn't look at their smiles or poses. It's a waste of our

The guards also participated in the hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, walked beside them, and handed them over to the Red Cross. 

The release led to several instances of lies and slander against Israel. Most notably that of 18-year-old Mohammed Nazal, who after being released appeared on video with his hands bandaged, claiming he had been beaten in Israeli prison, only for Israel Prison Service footage taken during the exchange to reveal that he was healthy upon release. 

In the same round was released 22-year-old Ahed Tamimi, considered an "icon" of Palestinian resistance, who claimed on Palestinian media outlets that she had been denied food and water during her imprisonment and was tortured by the guards. 

Asakla was present at every round of exchange. 

"I gave one of the freed women a bottle of water, and then I read in the Arab media that she claimed that the guards dragged her and shouted at her," he said. "I wasn't offended, but it hurt me that they were trying to portray us as inhumane. I was also next to Nazal who got on the bus, all smiles. I don't take it personally, but it makes me angry that this is how the world sees us. I tried to concentrate only on the hostages who returned home."

Elazari too participated in several hostage release rounds. 

"I accompanied some of the female prisoners to the bathroom and they were a little rude, but it didn't interest me," she said. "I didn't look at their smiles or poses. It's a waste of our The guards also participated in the hostage-prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas, walked beside them, and handed them over to the Red Cross. 

The release led to several instances of lies and slander against Israel. Most notably that of 18-year-old Mohammed Nazal, who after being released appeared on video with his hands bandaged, claiming he had been beaten in Israeli prison, only for Israel Prison Service footage taken during the exchange to reveal that he was healthy upon release. 

In the same round was released 22-year-old Ahed Tamimi, considered an "icon" of Palestinian resistance, who claimed on Palestinian media outlets that she had been denied food and water during her imprisonment and was tortured by the guards. 

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Asakla was present at every round of exchange. 

"I gave one of the freed women a bottle of water, and then I read in the Arab media that she claimed that the guards dragged her and shouted at her," he said. "I wasn't offended, but it hurt me that they were trying to portray us as inhumane. I was also next to Nazal who got on the bus, all smiles. I don't take it personally, but it makes me angry that this is how the world sees us. I tried to concentrate only on the hostages who returned home."

Elazari too participated in several hostage release rounds. 

"I accompanied some of the female prisoners to the bathroom and they were a little rude, but it didn't interest me," she said. "I didn't look at their smiles or poses. It's a waste of our energy."  

The post 'Feelings stay outside the prison walls': Inside look at facility where Oct. 7 terrorists are imprisoned appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The following interview was conducted in late October, shortly after the return of Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, from Hamas captivity and before the launch of the IDF ground operation in Gaza.

Maj. (res.) A., a combat navigator in Squadron 105 of the Ramat David airbase and a medical student, has a ritual before boarding an F-16 plane. She goes around the formidable vessel, examining the wheels, missiles, and connections while braiding her red hair into a long braid. Only then does she climb the metal ladder, takes the seat behind the pilot, and tucks her braid into her uniform.

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She did the same on Oct. 7, after arriving at the base on the day of the surprise onslaught by the Hamas terror organization in southern Israel.  Earlier that morning, A. and her fiance, Capt. R., who serves in the same squadron, managed to get to the bomb shelter just moments before a rocket launched by Hamas landed not far from their apartment.

Immediately afterward, the two hurried off to their squadron, R. as a pilot and A. as a volunteer reservist who did not even wait to be called up. While Israelis were glued to their screens watching the atrocities unfold, A. was already in the sky in a jet equipped with smart bombs.

"No one in my family knew yet that the day before the war, on a Friday, we finalized an event hall for our wedding, scheduled in six months," A. told Israel Hayom. "It feels like a few years have passed since then, not three weeks. My whole life has turned upside down. One minute I'm busy with the wedding and university, and the next I'm over Gaza, aiming bombs at strategic Hamas targets."

Since Oct. 7, A. has conducted dozens of sorties, several times a day, most of them at night. She participated in the destruction of terrorist infrastructures and the assassinations of senior Hamas officials. The 105 Squadron destroyed dozens of terror sites, including high-rise towers that stored Hamas assets.

Participating in the same operation is one of 105 Squadron's veterans, commander Lt. Col. T., 36, who prepares the pilots for two war zones – in Gaza and Lebanon.

"With the feeling of pain and loss, there is also a feeling of strength," T. said. "The aircrews understand the mission and strongly believe that we will win. Tens of thousands of fighters are on the borders, and we need to remind ourselves we are the strongest country in the Middle East. If the campaign in the north develops into a war, there will be missiles and deaths, but the balance of power should not be compared. Every day I prefer to be on our side. I have no doubt that we are going to win. We will bring this to an end for our children, change the situation in the Middle East, and return the residents of southern Israel to their homes. This is the goal."

'I have to be focused'

A lot has been said about the Hamas attack and the heroism of the standby units and the civilians in the south. The Ramat David base was among the first to dispatch fighter jets to the border to bomb Hamas targets and try to stop the flow of terrorists into Israel.

A and R. got to the squadron around 08:30 a.m. Half an hour later, she was already sitting in an F-16 and within minutes was flying over Gaza, navigating the aircraft.

Q: Do you think about the Israeli hostages while over the skies of Gaza?

"On my first flight in the war, I made a mistake and concentrated on the safety of family members from the south. I have to be focused on the mission. That's why in the first week I rarely watched the news. My agenda is to attend the briefs, fly, eat, and sleep. It's hard for me to hear the stories, so I disconnected. As part of the pilot course, I prepared for being captured, and it is excruciating to imagine children and civilians being in such situations.

"That Saturday, like most of the military personnel whose job it is to protect the country, I felt that we did not live up to the agreement with the citizens of Israel. Since then, every time I get on a plane in preparation for an attack, I have the feeling that I am helping and restoring what should have done in terms of defense."

Q: What kind of strikes do you participate in? 

"We hit whatever is necessary: buildings, senior Hamas members, infrastructure, posts, weapons."

Q: What does it feel like striking senior Hamas terrorists? 

"The people behind the massacre need to pay the price. Damage to the weapons, infrastructure, and buildings is important, but in the end, the decision-makers stand behind the attack and we are settling a score."

Q: Can you see from the jet what state Gaza is in? 

"During the day, you can see the buildings without the aircraft's technology – the destruction, the smoke, and the dust after the bombing. At night we see below us the launches [of missiles by Hamas] and interceptions [by the Iron Dome] and the explosion when the two collide. In the past, you could see the lights of Gaza's houses, but now it is quite dark. Compared to previous rounds, such as Operation Protective Edge [in 2014] and Operation Guardian of the Walls [in 2021], we are more aggressive. Erase everything that belongs to Hamas, while making sure to evacuate civilians. I'm glad that the IDF goes out of its way to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza, despite the atrocities that Hamas committed against innocent Israelis."

T. added, "No one wants to kill innocents, and we do everything we can to avoid that. You have to maintain your values even during the war. Nevertheless, something has changed in the country with regard to our enemies. In the past, before any attack in Gaza, we would provide a warning by "knocking on the roof" and would even give up on hitting terrorists. Now it's a war situation against a murderous and cruel enemy that spares no means, so it's a different situation. They do not knock on the roof anymore but do ask the citizens to move south so that they will not be harmed. The effort is focused on moving the population because the area is becoming a war zone. It is a military area, and those who stay there know that they are taking a risk."

'The right and moral thing'

Before the first checkpoint to Ramat David, there is an uncharacteristically long line of cars. Hundreds of civilians who served at the base as pilots or as technical staff are on their way to volunteer. A poster at the entrance of the base says, "We fight together, we win together." Below is a large Israeli flag that can be seen by every pilot who takes off.

Ramat David, or as it is officially titled "Kanaf 1", houses three F-16 squadrons and one helicopter squadron. I meet everyone at 105 Squadron, also known as The Scorpion.

T., who is married with two children with another one on the way, grew up in a military family. His father held a senior position in the Armored Corps, as did one of his brothers. T. took the position of squadron commander in January this year.

"We are focused on the mission and focused on the goals, but we are also human beings who were shocked by the descriptions of atrocities," he said. "We talked about it in the squadron and there is no doubt that we are all in the middle of this national trauma. The pain and loss are those of the entire nation and what the right thing to do is clear to everyone. Not only the pilots showed up here in full formation but also the ground crews. This is the people of Israel at its best. We received a painful blow and everyone understands what needs to be done."

Q: Besides eliminating senior Hamas officials, are there any attempts to hit launch sites that launch missiles that are a major disruption for life in Israel? 

"The main effort right now is to hit Hamas terrorists and prepare the area for the ground operation. We are hitting the headquarters and anything that could hinder our forces from entering Gaza."

Q: And what about the residents of Ashkelon or Ashdod, who are targeted by rocket fire every day?

"The launch graph is in significant decline, and it is clear that we do not want missiles to hit the home front. The main operational solution is to strike at Hamas operatives. We disrupt their ability to command and control. The purpose of the fighting, as decided by the General Staff and according to the state's strategy, is to dismantle Hamas' operational capacity. Hunting every launcher and stockpile of ammunition is not effective."

Q: How come? 

"Because they are very scattered and because we have the Iron Dome, which does an excellent job. In places where there is a concentration of launchers and a mass of rocket launchers toward our forces, we do attack because of operational value."

T. showed me two videos, footage of two strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza in which smart bombs were used. 

"There were private homes around, so we had to be careful and the hit needed to be precise," T. explained. "The achievements of the Air Force are significant. We do not decide when the ground op will begin, but we will be with the soldiers in full force."

Q: Does it affect the pilots that the exact location of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip is unknown? 

"It's a difficult question. We are in a war for which we have been preparing for 30 years and one of the significant challenges is to put our thoughts aside, including concerns for the family. The overall picture is important and we need to concentrate on the mission. You cannot fly thinking 'what if'. Difficult things can happen in war and you cannot hesitate before every bomb is dropped. If something difficult happens, we will know how to deal with it. We are doing the right and moral thing in Gaza, we have no other solution."

Q: The northern border is also escalating. Is the IDF ready for two war zones? 

"The military has been preparing for a multi-arena war in recent years. Currently, a state of war is declared in the south, and the northern arena is secondary. These are mainly exchanges of missiles between the parties. The IDF thwarts infiltration attempts and anti-tank fire and there are quite a few achievements, such as 30 Hezbollah operatives who were eliminated. The squadron is also ready for the northern sector, with a stock of armaments."

Q: And how are the arenas different? 

"The level of threat to the warplanes from Lebanon is high and significant, in contrast to Gaza, but it does not harm the sense of security. At the moment, Hezbollah is focused on hitting military targets, so we react in the same way and attack observation posts and anti-tank posts. At the same time, Israeli settlements have been evacuated, with the understanding that the arena could catch fire and we don't want a repeat of Oct. 7 in the north. The Air Force is fully prepared for this arena."

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A is no stranger to the Lebanese border either. 

"I go wherever I am sent and the squadron participated in all the arenas," she said while taking the navigator's seat. 

She explained to me about the instruments, and the means of vision and showed me the stick the navigator could use to take over the plane in the event the pilot is injured. 

Q: Don't you feel a little lonely here? You cannot see the pilot because of this computer. 

"It's a two-seater plane and we're a team by all means. There are single-seat planes where it feels lonely. The navigator communicates with the pilot and is responsible for the armament, with the exception of smart bombs that steer themselves. In the past, a navigator would really steer the plane, but today it is different and he operates sophisticated cameras and systems."

Q: And what does it feel like to drop a bomb? 

"You can physically feel the jet get lighter. It's checking that the bomb reaches its destination that is important." 

Growing up, A. was not sure whether to become a pilot or a doctor. She now combines the two by studying medicine and volunteering at the 105 Squadron, where she and her fiance now stand on the front line of Israeli defense.

The post 'One minute I'm busy planning my wedding, the next I'm above Gaza' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.