‘Asked Him If He Was Ashamed…’: 85-yr-old Israeli Ex-hostage Confronted Hamas Chief While in Captivity – News18

An 85-year-old Israeli woman, who was abducted by Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks and set free two weeks later, said she met the militant group’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar while in captivity and confronted him about “acting violently against peace activists like herself”.

Yocheved Lifshitz was taken from her Kibbutz Nir Oz home in Israel to Gaza and released on October 23. She told the Israeli newspaper Davar that she confronted Sinwar when he visited the hostages in an underground tunnel where Hamas was holding them captive.

“Sinwar was with us three to four days after we arrived,” Lifshitz told the Hebrew-language Davar newspaper. “I asked him how he is not ashamed to do such a thing to people who all these years have supported peace,” she said, adding, “he didn’t answer. He was silent.”

Her grandson told news agency Reuters that Lifshitz is a peace activist who, with her husband, helped sick Palestinians in Gaza get to hospital for years. Her 83-year-old husband Oded was also kidnapped from their home and remains in captivity.

When she spoke to reporters after being released by Hamas last month, Lifshitz had said she “went through hell” during her two weeks as a hostage in the Gaza Strip. She was one of four women freed early in the war. She had first said she had been beaten by militants when she was abducted and taken to Gaza, but was then treated well during her two-week captivity in the Palestinian enclave.

(With inputs from Reuters)