During the 50 days an Israeli mother and her two young daughters were held hostage by Hamas, they experienced “psychological warfare,'' including being told that “no one cares about us in Israel.''
Doron Katz Asher and his daughters, 5-year-old Raz and 2-year-old Aviv, were not physically harmed, but instead were shot dead by Hamas while Asher's mother was forcibly taken to Gaza. As a result of witnessing this incident, I suffered extreme emotional distress. Asher told CNN.
Usher, 34, and her daughters were initially held in a house in Gaza, where her captors tried to sell a narrative that no one was fighting for their release.
“They didn't give us much information. They mainly tried to say that Hamas wants to free us, but no one cares about us in Israel. ,” Asher said.
“We will not go back to the kibbutz because it is not our home, it is not where we belong.”
But the sounds of fighting outside the building reassured her that “something might be going on to pressure Hamas to release, to bring us home,” so she decided not to talk about it. I didn't believe it.
Sixteen days later, Asher and her daughters were taken to what she called a “so-called” hospital. Hospitals are “original places to treat people, but instead they were taken over by Hamas and they used them.” “It's to hide the hostages,” Asher said.
US officials say they are “confident” that Hamas used Gaza's largest hospital to hold “at least some” hostages captured in a bloody attack on Israel on October 7. It is unclear which hospital Asher and his daughters were detained at.
While in the hospital, Aviv developed a fever and had to be placed in a sink of cold water to cool down his body temperature.
“She was screaming. They told us to be quiet, but she had a fever and I had to take care of her,” Asher said. Ta.
The family was held captive in the hospital for nearly five weeks before being “smuggled” from the hospital into a Hamas vehicle.
“It was very, very scary driving through the streets of Gaza because no one told us we would be released,” Asher said.
As they were taken away, Usher recalled that thousands of people lined the streets trying to hit cars and bang on windows, and it was the first time Raz had ever said he was “scared.” It pointed out.
Asher and his daughter were just three of 105 people released by Hamas during the temporary truce with Israel from November 24 to December 1.
Video footage shared online showed Hamas members kindly transporting hostages to the Red Cross, but Asher said the display was “one big show.”
My daughters and I went barefoot for 50 days before we were released. It was cold because I was wearing short sleeves in November. But before being handed over to Red Cross officials, they were given shoes and Hamas members “made me wear nice dresses,” Asher said.
A video of Asher's tearful reunion with his daughters and their father, Yoni Asher, 37, was shared online in late November as the three were part of the first wave of hostages freed by Hamas. Ta.
Asher said he and his family are trying to restore some sense of normalcy as they await the release of his slain mother's partner, 79-year-old Gadi Moses, who remains incarcerated.
“We're waiting for him. He's 80 years old and he doesn't take any medication,” Asher said.
A video released in December by the Quds Brigades, an armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, shows Moses and another hostage, Gadi Katsir, 47, pleading with the Israeli government to arrange their release. Ta.
“He was very thin. We saw him on video,” Asher said.
“I don't understand what happened to my family, and I don't understand their inhumanity. People who kill people in their beds. Who would do that? That's not human.”
