In a testament to human resilience, Shlomi Ziv and Almog Meir Jan, two of the hostages rescued from Gaza during the daring Operation Arnon in June, have spoken out for the first time about their 246-day ordeal in captivity.
Ziv agreed to recount the terrifying details of his captivity at the hands of Hamas terrorists as part of a national documentation project for returned hostages and their families, led by the Government Press Office.
“If it means the world will learn the truth about what they did to us, what we endured in captivity—I’m on board,” Meir Jan affirmed. Operation Arnon also freed fellow survivors Andrey Kozlov and Noa Argamani, who was held separately.
The primary captor overseeing Ziv, Meir Jan and Kozlov employed what they describe as “creative” punishments. “Let’s just say he had an issue with us moving around,” Meir Jan recalled.
“If he caught one of us standing, he’d suddenly declare: ‘Oh, you stood up? Fine. Now I want you sitting for a week. If you need the bathroom—crawl. I don’t want to see you on your feet.'”
Ziv added: “But we’d wear him down after about four days. We did our best to comply. We’d win him over by playing the role of obedient children.”
“We were itching to retaliate, but we suppressed it, detaching ourselves emotionally,” Meir Jan said.
“This is the Yad Vashem of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel,” said Nitzan Chen, director of the Government Press Office. These testimonies will be preserved for posterity, including in the State Archives.
As part of this project, 25 former hostages of various ages have shared their stories since returning, along with 21 family members of those still in captivity.
As they recount every detail, listeners are momentarily transported into their captivity, feeling a fleeting second of blood-curdling terror, tasting the grit of sand, inhaling the pervasive dust and mold, and sensing the suffocating horror.
Resilience in captivity
We’ve also witnessed the extraordinary resilience displayed by the hostages during and after their ordeal, as well as the coping mechanisms and shared experiences among the survivors. Many described the terror of nearby IDF strikes and the constant anxiety about their captors’ unpredictable reactions to the intensified fighting.
Several freed hostages have shared the emotional burden they’ve carried since their release, consumed by thoughts of those left behind.
“For those who’ve returned, the most crucial mission now is saving lives. They carry the weight of responsibility for those they had to leave behind,” explained Susie Ozsinay Aranya, one of three documenters heading the project on behalf of the GPO.
Originally published by Israel Hayom.
