Nearly a year after the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack, four freed Israeli hostages spoke to NBC News about their captivity.
Ilana Gritsevsky, Agam Goldstein-Almog, Moran Stella Yanai, and Aviva Siegel were all released from Hamas after weeks of confinement. According to Go to NBC News. Hamas took over 240 people hostage and killed at least 1,200 in an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
According to NBC, Gritsevsky was held captive for 55 days after being captured in the small Israeli community of Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza border. She is capitalizing on the guilt of being one of more than 100 people freed while many others, including her boyfriend Matan Zangaukar, 24, remain prisoners.
“Why can I hug my mom and they can’t?” Griszewski told NBC. “Why can I speak whenever I want, but they can’t? Why should I feel free when they are not?”
Griszewski was freed in a November exchange in which 50 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners. Subsequent rescue operations, including a surprise raid on Gaza, resulted in the return of several more hostages and the recovery of bodies of other hostages. (Related: Bodies of 6 hostages recovered in Gaza, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin)
As the armistice agreement between Israel and Hamas entered its second day on November 25, 2023, portraits of Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants in Jerusalem were painted. A man walks in front of a giant billboard. (Photo by John McDougall/AFP via Getty Images)
“Everything happened so quickly,” Goldstein Almog, 18, who was taken prisoner with his mother and two brothers, told NBC. “From a normal, good, safe life, I suddenly found myself in the tunnels of Gaza.”
Goldstein-Almog’s father, Nadav Goldstein, and his sister, Staff Sgt. According to NBC, off-duty Israeli soldier Yam Goldstein Almog was killed in his home in Kibbutz Kfar Azha during the invasion.
Stella Yanai told NBC that she was captured by Hamas as she tried to scream for help in the early morning hours during the Supernova music festival. She spent 54 days in captivity.
“I called the military, but the wrong group heard me,” Yanai told NBC.
Yanai said that when he was finally released, he barely recognized himself.
“I probably saw my face a couple of times while I was incarcerated,” she said, according to NBC. “And I didn’t recognize myself for a second. The look in my eyes was different, but I was really proud that I was able to get through this experience.”
The current ceasefire negotiations are ongoing, as Israel remains unwilling to budge on Hamas’ demands for a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, and there is no agreement on the exact number of hostages to be released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. , has not yet been realized.
NBC reported that Siegel was released during a prisoner exchange in November, but her husband Keith remains a prisoner. Siegel still holds out hope that he will return.
“Who’s going to scream for Keith?” Siegel said, according to NBC. “Who will scream for the return of the hostages? I’m going to stay strong and scream as loud as I can.”
Griszewski said the experience shaped the way she lives her life today, and she is no longer able to enjoy the activities she did before her abduction.
“I don’t bake bread anymore, that’s my profession. I can’t stand it right now,” she told NBC.
Almog told the outlet that he felt it would be “impossible” to recover until all the hostages were freed.
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