Freed 12-Year-Old Hostage Says Captors Told Him Israel Had Been Destroyed

Stand for Israel  |  December 26, 2023

Only 12-years-old, Eitan Yahalomi recounts some of his experiences in Hamas captivity in Gaza after returning home. Eitan was falsely told that Israel had been destroyed and that his mother was taken hostage as well. It wasn’t until he returned home that he learned the truth, reports The Times of Israel:

He was permitted to listen a little to a radio and “it was nice to hear things in Hebrew.”

Later he was taken to another location where there were other hostages. There he met a good friend from his kibbutz and together they used the limited resources available to make card games or draw. He also kept a journal, describing being moved to a new room as “special days.”

Yahalomi had little information about what had happened to the rest of his family. His captors told him that his mother was a hostage.

“Sometimes they would tell me that they would soon take me to be with her and then I had hope. I imagined what had happened to [my family] and tried to speak with them inside my head. I was afraid that perhaps something had happened to them. The terrorists told me that the kibbutz no longer existed and the State of Israel didn’t exist.”