A survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led onslaught on Israel delivered powerful testimony about her 54 days in captivity as she faced off with a student protest leader at a campus debate at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The confrontation, captured in a video segment from earlier this year that was released on Monday by The Gr8 Debate and filmed by Trusted Confidential Coverage (TCC), brought together former hostage Moran Stella Yanai, UCLA encampment leader Aidan Doyle and Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef.
Yanai, who was kidnapped during the terrorist attack on the Supernova music festival, confronted Doyle in an emotional exchange where she detailed the brutal violence she endured after being taken to Gaza.
Doyle, who had previously expressed support for the Oct. 7 attack, avoided eye contact throughout much of Yanai’s testimony.
“We went to dance. We didn’t attack,” Yanai said of the festival, as Doyle shook his head. “Don’t get annoyed. I’m really asking you as a person: Do you support those actions? If you didn’t support those actions and Oct. 7, didn’t happen, would we sit here, talking right now?”
Doyle replied: “Well yeah, actually, we probably would be.”
Yanai described how her ordeal began when she broke her leg while trying to escape the massacre at the music festival. She recounted the horror of being taken into Gaza, where she witnessed civilians celebrating her capture despite her visible injuries.
“When I was entering Gaza, I saw 100% of civilians celebrating me being taken,” she said, describing her broken leg and extensive bruising. “I didn’t know about the other hostages; I thought it was only me.”
Her family learned of her kidnapping through a viral TikTok video discovered by her 12-year-old niece, which showed Yanai pleading for her life as her captors shouted in the background.
During 54 days in captivity, Yanai was moved between seven heavily guarded locations where she faced constant surveillance, limited access to food and water, and needed permission to use bathroom facilities.
She revealed that her captors told her they “planned to move on and kill as much as they could and slaughter everybody.” More than 3,000 people were present at the festival. Nearly 400 festival attendees were killed in the attack.
Yanai was released in November 2023 as part of a hostage exchange agreement.
She emphasized her desire for dialogue and understanding, telling Doyle, “I really want to hear your side, that’s my agenda, of coexisting.”
Currently, 101 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza.
Following the debate, Doyle took to X dismissively commenting on Yanai’s presence, writing, “They brought a hostage to a debate.”
Hassan Yousef later offered a scathing critique of Doyle’s performance, saying mockingly, “He came really prepared. He memorized the narrative, even perfected it more than those who have been claiming it for 70 years. He knows a lot more than Yasser Arafat on Palestine.”
Originally published by Israel Hayom.
