Skip to main content

Painful Surgeries, Passing Notes: How Siblings Survived Hamas Captivity

Painful Surgeries, Passing Notes: How Israel Siblings Survived Hamas Captivity

From the hospital Maya wrote her brother and Omer a note and asked it be delivered.

Jerusalem:

Israeli Maya Regev lay badly wounded in a nondescript house in Gaza, her leg mangled from a gunshot, under orders not to make a sound.

The 21-year-old begged her captors to let her younger brother Itay, who was being held in a room nearby, join her while the bandages on her leg were replaced.

It was days after Hamas Islamists rampaged through southern Israel in a killing and hostage-taking spree on Oct. 7 that triggered the war in Gaza. The siblings were shot and wounded as they tried to flee an outdoor music festival turned killing field. They were thrown into a pickup and taken away with their friend, Omer Shem Tov.

"Itay and Omer walk in. And they began removing the bandages. And I'm screaming and Omer is holding my hand and covering my mouth," a tearful Maya recalled during an interview with Uvda, a current-affairs programme on Israel's Channel 12 TV.

Itay, 18, told how days earlier a "scared and sweaty doctor" painfully removed the bullet from his leg without anaesthesia, while he was instructed to remain quiet or be killed.

Maya's injury was more severe and she says she was eventually snuck into a Gaza hospital. Her dangling foot was re-attached in surgery, but sideways, at an unnatural angle. She gave her interview in a wheelchair, her leg in a cast.

The Regev siblings were among more than 100 hostages freed in a week-long ceasefire in late November. Shem Tov remains in captivity with nearly 130 others. Some have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.

While being treated in the hospital, Maya said she was kept near another wounded Israeli hostage, Guy Iluz. The two spoke about returning home - what they would do, what they would eat. But Iluz died in the hospital.

"At first I refused to believe. Before they took him away I said I have to see, like, that it's really him. I have the duty to go speak to his family when this is over. I'm the only person who knew what really happened to him."

Itay said that he and Omer in the meantime were taken to a different house, forced to dress as Muslim women so they wouldn't be recognized as they walked in the dark of night.

From the hospital Maya wrote her brother and Omer a note and asked it be delivered. She said she argued with her captors, demanding that she hear back.

Itay received it.

"They came one time with a note, a note from Maya, in which she wrote me where she is, what she is going through. She said she loves me, asked me to stay strong, for the family, for everyone," he said.

He sent a response.

"They brought me a note that they (Itay and Omer) wrote me, and I knew it was really from them because I recognized the handwriting and my brother called me by my nickname," Maya said.

Itay calls his sister patcha.

"It was a light, a small light in all the darkness, that I hear from my little brother and from Omer, that I understand they are ok."

They continued corresponding.

"Those notes gave so much strength, like in the small moment that I feel a bit like I am diving into bad thoughts, I just held Maya's note, read it like ten times, and it would give me strength," Itay said.

Since the brief ceasefire, Israel has pushed ahead with its devastating campaign in Gaza, saying that military pressure is needed to free the remaining hostages.

Israel's air and artillery bombardment has killed more than 21,800 people according to health authorities in Hamas-run Gaza, with many more feared dead in the rubble, and pushed nearly all its 2.3 million people from their homes. Qatari and Egyptian mediators have been trying to broker a deal that would include a pause in the fighting and the release of more hostages.

Itay was separated from his friend, only to find out later he had been included in the list of hostages to be freed.

"If I had known I was going home, I can tell you that probably I wouldn't agree to leave without Omer," he said.

Their story is not over yet, he added. "Even though Maya and I are home, Omer is still there."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Adblock test (Why?)



from NDTV News- Special https://ift.tt/kel185U https://ift.tt/HakXBKY
via IFTTT

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

North Korea Says It Tested New Strategic Cruise Missile

North Korea test-fired a new generation of strategic cruise missile on Wednesday. (Representational) Seoul: North Korea fired several cruise missiles towards the Yellow Sea on Wednesday, Seoul's military said, the latest in a series of tension-raising moves by the nuclear-armed state. Hours later, North Korea appeared to confirm the firing, saying it had carried out its first test of a new generation of strategic cruise missiles it is developing, the Pulhwasal-3-31. Pyongyang has accelerated weapons testing in the new year, including tests of what it called an "underwater nuclear weapon system" and a solid-fuelled hypersonic ballistic missile. "Our military detected several cruise missiles launched by North Korea towards the Yellow Sea at around 7:00 am today," the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. Unlike their ballistic counterparts, the testing of cruise missiles is not banned under current UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Cruise...

18-Year-Old Killed By Friends Over Mobile Game Password In Bengal: Cops

According to cops, accused "friends" attempted to burn the victim after killing him. (Representational) Kolkata: An argument over sharing the password of an online mobile game allegedly led to the murder of a teenage boy by four of his friends in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, a senior police officer said. The body of 18-year-old Papai Das, who had been missing since January 8, was discovered near Nishindra Ghat of the feeder canal in Farakka on Monday, police said. Papai, a class 10 student, was reportedly killed by his four "close" friends after a disagreement over sharing the password for a mobile online game. The accused individuals have been arrested, police added. "These five individuals used to play online games at one of the quarters of the Farakka Barrage. The victim went out on the evening of January 8 and never returned. On January 9, the family lodged a police complaint. "Based on preliminary investigations, we discovered that...

"Jaiswal Has Run Ahead Of Gill": Ex-India Star's Massive T20 WC Verdict

Former India opener Aakash Chopra has suggested that Yashasvi Jaiswal is slightly ahead of Shubman Gill in the pecking order as captain Rohit Sharma's partner at the top in T20Is. Since making his debut last year, Jaiswal has been in stunning form in the shortest format of the game. Gill's form, on the other hand, has dipped since the ODI World Cup last year in India. With the T20 World Cup scheduled to be held later this year, Chopra feels Jaiswal will open the innings with Rohit during the tournament. "It's clear that Yashasvi Jaiswal has run ahead of Shubman Gill. Yashasvi is ahead in the two-horse race, Gill is lagging slightly behind. Gill was played in the first match, dropped in the second, and wasn't played in the third as well," Chopra said on his YouTube channel. Jaiswal helped India beat Afghanistan in the second T20I earlier this week, scoring a quickfire fifty. Considering his recent form across formats, Chopra emphasised that Jaiswal has ...