{"id":71590,"date":"2024-06-12T21:05:10","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T21:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/accounts-of-life-in-hamas-captivity-emerge-in-israel-2\/"},"modified":"2024-06-12T21:05:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T21:05:10","slug":"accounts-of-life-in-hamas-captivity-emerge-in-israel-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/accounts-of-life-in-hamas-captivity-emerge-in-israel-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Accounts of Life in Hamas Captivity Emerge in Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/12\/multimedia\/12mideast-crisis-hostage-family-gtjc\/12mideast-crisis-hostage-family-gtjc-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg?fit=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Accounts of Life in Hamas Captivity Emerge in Israel\" title=\"Accounts of Life in Hamas Captivity Emerge in Israel\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the months after he was taken hostage in Israel and hidden in the Gaza Strip, Andrey Kozlov\u2019s captors kept drumming in the same message: The world, they said, had given up on him. Even his family had moved on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cYour mom is on vacation in Greece,\u201d the militants told him. \u201cYour mom doesn\u2019t know about you at all \u2014 and doesn\u2019t want to know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">So persuasive were they that when Israeli security forces burst through the door of the apartment where Mr. Kozlov was being held on Saturday, he was at first unsure of whether they had come to save or kill him, his parents said in an interview this week during which they recounted his ordeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The account of Mr. Kozlov\u2019s eight months in captivity came as a doctor in Israel reported that while he and the three other rescued Hamas hostages seemed to be in fairly good condition at first glance, tests showed that all were malnourished. And all, said Dr. Itai Pessach, the head of the medical team for returning hostages at Sheba Medical Center, had suffered mistreatment in varying degrees of frequency and intensity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey were all abused, punished and tortured physically and psychologically in many ways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Pessach said the hostages he had examined had lost a lot of weight, though they gained some back, and their muscles were \u201cextremely wasted.\u201d The mix of poor nutrition, confinement, lack of sunlight and stress that they endured may have long-term implications for their health, he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Hamas says it has treated the hostages well compared with Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinian prisoners, a claim that Israeli officials deny.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Sheba Medical Center, which is on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, has been the first stop for dozens of captives who were taken in the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7. Of the 251 people who were abducted, according to Israeli officials, seven were rescued. More than 100 were released in November in an exchange for Palestinians held prisoner in Israel. At least a third of the about 120 captives who remain in Gaza are no longer alive, Israeli authorities have said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The rescue on Saturday was accompanied by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/09\/world\/middleeast\/gaza-hostage-rescue-deaths.html\" title=\"\">intense airstrikes<\/a> and significant casualties in the neighborhood where the hostages were being held. Local health officials put the death toll at more than 270, including children, but did not say how many were militants. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Gaza, those deaths added to the despair in an enclave where, local officials say, at least 36,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began. In Israel, the rescues lifted the public mood, but also offered a reminder of the plight of hostages still being held.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe said it was very difficult,\u201d said Mr. Kozlov\u2019s mother, Evgeniia Kozlova, who, along with his father, Mikhail Kozlov, spoke to The New York Times in Tel Aviv. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to put into words.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For much of his captivity, Mr. Kozlov\u2019s family said, the militants bound his hands and feet so tightly that the restraints left marks on his body. They also told Mr. Kozlov, a 27-year-old Russian Israeli, that his government had concluded that the hostages were a burden, Ms. Kozlova said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey were telling Andrey to be very quiet because they, the hostages, are a problem for Israel,\u201d she said. \u201cThey said Israel can solve this problem any way it wants, including killing the hostages so they don\u2019t have to think about them anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Kozlov went outside only at night, when he was being moved to a new location, his mother said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Pessach said it was critical to allow newly freed hostages to make their own choices after months of having others decide for them. But in their first hours of freedom, he said, there is something else they seem to crave: to see the sky.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have learned we need to take them out on the first evening they are here,\u201d Dr. Pessach said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mikhail Kozlov said that when he and his wife discussed months ago whether they preferred their son to be rescued in a military operation or freed through a diplomatic agreement, they both favored an agreement. But since no deal materialized, he said, they wanted him brought home in any way possible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIf there was such a possibility to avoid these victims, it would be much better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/12\/world\/middleeast\/israel-hostages-gaza-rescue.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the months after he was taken hostage in Israel and hidden in the Gaza Strip, Andrey Kozlov\u2019s captors kept drumming in the same message: The world, they said, had given up on him. Even his family had moved on. \u201cYour mom is on vacation in Greece,\u201d the militants told him. \u201cYour mom doesn\u2019t know [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/12\/multimedia\/12mideast-crisis-hostage-family-gtjc\/12mideast-crisis-hostage-family-gtjc-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1456,62023,3201,5552,38,76],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71592,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71590\/revisions\/71592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}