The three Israeli hostages who returned from captivity in Gaza Sunday recalled in testimonies how they helped each other survive for 471 days amid uncertainty and lacking medical care, Israel’s Channel 12 reported Monday.
In statements vetted by the military censor and approved by the hostages for publication, they recalled living in underground facilities with little medical attention, tremendous uncertainty and, at times, despair.
Emily Damari, who has a leg injury and lost two fingers on her left hand during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks was treated in captivity by Romi Gonen, another of the hostages freed on Sunday and who is a trained paramedic, according to the report.
One of the hostages, whom Channel 12 did not identify, said: “I didn’t think I’d return, I was certain that I’d die in Gaza.”
The three released hostages—Gonen, Damari and Doron Steinbrecher—were initially held together, but became separated at some point, according to the report. Damari and Gonen were moved dozens of times between different hiding places, both above and below ground.
The hostages rarely saw the light of day and were held in underground facilities most of the time. However, they were temporarily imprisoned in humanitarian compounds originally intended for displaced Gazans, according to the report.
During their captivity, the hostages cooked and cared for each other, and some of them received medication. One hostage underwent a medical procedure without anesthesia.
The women noted that they gained limited access to television and radio broadcasts in captivity.
“We saw your struggle, we heard our families fighting,” one of the women told her relatives, who participated in rallies and lobbying for the hostages’ release. “We realized that our families had survived, but we discovered that we had lost a great many friends.”
They also said they were “scared to death” during their transfer from Hamas hands to the Red Cross.
Ninety-four hostages remain in captivity, 30 of whom are to return to Israel in the coming weeks during the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
The remaining 64 hostages are to be released in the second and third phases, according to a schedule that has yet to be announced.
