These three stories of released Israeli hostages, just a few of the many Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, are difficult and hard to watch. But it is essential for everyone to know the truth of what happened to them, and what is currently happening to others who are still in captivity.
On Oct. 7, Amit Soussana, along with everyone else in the Kfar Aza kibbutz, was awakened at 6:20 a.m. by the sound of missiles being shot into Israel. These missiles were ultimately a distraction from the attack Hamas terrorists were beginning in the neighborhood. Amit heard gunfire, explosions and Arabic voices, and fearfully hid in her home while texting family members for several hours. She ended up leaving her safe room for the living room closet because someone was knocking on her windows. Then she heard a hand grenade go off in the living room. When she opened the door, she saw that her home was filled with several armed men who were there to take her. She resisted but was eventually dragged to the border of the Gaza Strip. Her body was bruised, but what happened next was worse. She spent 55 days in Hamas captivity, much of the time 40 meters below the earth’s surface.
Danielle Aloni’s description of these tunnels paints a stark description of what those who are still in captivity are experiencing. She described the passages of the tunnels as a horror movie: total darkness, humidity causing clothing to always be wet with sweat, stinky, with no fresh air, making it very difficult to breathe. One chamber of the tunnels was full of hostages with open wounds and no hope of medical treatment. She spent 49 days in this setting; in a room only an arm’s width in size with makeshift mattresses on the floor, no bathroom and no shower, with everyone crammed in together. She passed time with her daughter by telling her stories about why the Hamas terrorists had taken them. She explained that they had taken “all the most special children and put them in this place to protect them from these booms outside.” She said that every day she was in captivity she would sit her daughter beside her and begin asking God to listen to the voice of her daughter as they prayed aloud together, asking Him to free them. He heard their prayers!
He also heard the voice of Nili Margalit. Nili was not kidnapped by Hamas terrorists but sold to Hamas by citizens who broke into her home as the attack was unfolding. Her kidnappers were a young man, and an older man wielding a huge knife. The men forcefully grabbed her while she was still barefoot and in her pajamas. She grabbed a sheet on the way to cover herself and was placed on a golf cart. Realizing she was being kidnapped, she hid glasses under the sheet because she could not manage without them. Later she was transferred to a bloody car. She was then driven through Khan Yunis. The car stopped and a woman from her neighborhood was added. The women recognized each other but drove in silence as shock kept them from processing what was actually happening. They were driven to the entrance of what Hamas calls Lower Gaza, the tunnel system. While at the door, it was clear the captors were selling these women to the Hamas gunman. After they were sold, the hostages never saw their initial captors again.
Hear the atrocities of their captivity from the hostages themselves, as you watch their stories in the videos below.