Abuse suffered by Hamas hostages during their 500 days in captivity revealed
9 February 2025, 23:33 | Updated: 9 February 2025, 23:45
The abuse suffered by Hamas hostages has been revealed - including torture, being hung from their feet, and being forced to share rotten food.
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Hamas tortured their hostages during their 500 days in captivity.
The militant group hung them by their feet, gaged their mouths, throttled them with rope, and branded them.
The hostages were starving, forced to share rotten pita bread to survive.
After days without food, they were given morsels which they had to share.
Food was only given food when their release was permitted, so they could walk on stage during the handover.
Or Levy, 34, who was freed on Saturday, said: "I was bound in chains - towards the release I learned to walk."
The hostages were interrogated at length for over a year.
Journalists from Israeli channel Kan 11 described the abuse:
"The three were deliberately starved, going for long days without any food at all.
"Every few days, they were given a rotten pita bread, which they were forced to share with other hostages held with them. They went entire days without receiving any water. They did not drink.
"One of the hostages even collapsed in captivity. It was a traumatic event—those held with him thought he had died.
"All of them endured horrific torture—things that are difficult to fathom, but it is crucial to tell what is happening in the tunnels.
"They were taken separately for brutal interrogations by the terrorists, who demanded information while inflicting severe physical abuse.
"They were strangled, their limbs were tied, their mouths were covered with cloth to the point of suffocation, they were hung by their feet, and they suffered burns caused by a heated object.
"Regarding the conditions of their captivity, according to the testimonies, they were confined in a small room inside a tunnel where they could not move, certainly not stand, and struggled to breathe. They remained alone for long days. They were barefoot the entire time."
A journalist said: "It is impossible to process the things we are about to reveal now."
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Or Levy was captured by the terrorists at the Nova music festival.
His wife, Einav, 32, was executed, and he only found out she had been killed on release.
At a press conference at Sheba Medical Centre, near Tel Aviv, his brother Michael, 41, said: "Yesterday, after a year and four months, I saw my brother again,
"I hugged him, but he wasn't the same Or who left home on October 7.
"He came back in poor physical condition. Anyone who saw the pictures and videos couldn't ignore it. For 16 months, he was hungry, barefoot and in constant fear that everyday can be his last.
"The hardest blow was yesterday when Or discovered that Einav, the love of his life, was murdered on that terrible day. For 491 days, he held onto hope that he would return to her."
Michael said that the abuse and torture were a 'deliberate directive' from Yahya Sinwar.
He claimed that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu must have known about the starvation tactics deployed by Hamas.
He said: "There’s no way that we and the families were privy to this, and the prime minister wasn’t. No way."
Eli Sharabi, 54, was also released on Saturday.
He only learnt on release that his wife, from Bristol, Lianne, 48, and his daughters Noiya, 16 and Yahel, 13, had been killed.
76 hostages remain in Gaza.
