Published October 24, 2023
One of the two elderly Israeli hostages released by Hamas terrorists late Monday turned back to wish for peace for her captors — who she said were “friendly in their own way” even though they put her “through hell.”
Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was seen turning back to one of the masked gunmen handing her to Red Cross employees at Gazah’s Rafah Crossing more than two weeks after she was beaten and abducted during a slaughter at her kibbutz.
Video of the exchange showed her reaching out her hand and wishing him “shalom,” a Hebrew word meaning “peace” often also used to say goodbye.
Asked at a press conference Tuesday why she took the terrorist’s hand, Lifshitz generously claimed that “they were gentle with us, our needs were supplied” in captivity — despite describing the horrors she was put through when she was beaten and taken to Gaza.
“They were friendly in their way,” she said.
“They made sure that we eat the food they ate: white cheese and cucumbers — that was the meal for the whole day.”
READ FULL STORY
SOURCE: https://nypost.com/2023/10/24/news/elderly-woman-freed-from-hamas-says-she-wished-them-peace/
RELATED: Israeli woman, 85, whose gesture of peace towards Hamas captors was seen around the world explains why she did it despite ‘going through hell’
Published October 24, 2023
- Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, were released by Hamas on Monday
- They were among more than 200 people taken into Gaza on October 7
An elderly woman held hostage for 16 days by Hamas terrorists today explained why she wished them peace despite going ‘through hell.’
Footage on Monday evening showed Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, saying ‘shalom’, which means peace in Hebrew, to a Hamas gunman, and shaking his hand, before leaving with a Red Cross worker after spending more than two weeks as a hostage.
Yocheved, wheelchair-bound and dressed head-to-toe in black, spoke to reporters from Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv with her daughter, British citizen Sharone Lifshitz, 52, on Tuesday.
When asked why she shook the Hamas terrorist’s hand, she said: ‘Because they treated us very nicely.’
This is despite her admitting that the Hamas terrorists viciously attacked her community in their homes on October 7, and that she was beaten with a stick as she was being taken into Gaza.
‘They stormed into our homes. They beat people. They kidnapped others, the old and the young without distinction,’ she said.
She added: ‘The young men hit me on the way. They didn’t break my ribs but it was painful and I had difficulty breathing.’
READ FULL STORY
SOURCE: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12664995/Incredible-moment-Israeli-85-wishes-peace-shalom-captor-released-Hamas-holding-husband-British-daughter-reveals.html
RELATED: ‘I went through hell:’ Released Hamas hostage describes being kidnapped and taken into tunnel system
Published October 24, 2023
An Israeli hostage released by Hamas has described her ordeal after she was kidnapped by gunmen and taken into a tunnel system in Gaza during the Palestinian militant group’s deadly assault in Israel on October 7, saying “I went through hell.”
Yocheved Lifshitz, a frail 85-year-old grandmother who was one of two hostages released by Hamas on Monday, recounted the moment that militants snatched her from her home in the kibbutz of Nir Oz and drove her away on a motorbike towards Gaza, a “painful act” during which she said she was beaten and sustained bruises.
Lifshitz said she was forced to walk on wet ground and descended into an underground tunnel system she likened to a spiderweb, where she was greeted by “people who told us we believe in the Quran” and promised “not to harm” her and her fellow hostages.
Lifshitz’s daughter Sharone, who helped convey her mother’s comments to reporters outside a hospital in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, called it a “huge network” of tunnels.
Lifshitz said she was initially grouped together with 25 other people before her captors separated her into a smaller group with four other individuals from her kibbutz. She said they slept on mattresses on the floor of the tunnels, ate the same food as Hamas fighters and received regular treatment from doctors during her incarceration.
“They really took care of the sanitary side of things so that we didn’t get sick,” Lifshitz added.
