Israeli Hostage Thanks Trump, Says His Captors Were a Teacher, a Doctor and a Professor

Starvation, isolation and medical procedures without anesthetics during captivity.

Imagine what the dead endured.

An Israeli citizen who was held hostage in Gaza said many of his captors were not Hamas soldiers, but Palestinian civilians.

Demonic.

Released hostage Tal Shoham shared his thoughts with the Times of Israel regarding his time in captivity and about his release. He of course thanked Trump, but also revealed just who his captors were. Jeff Charles: Most of those who watched over the hostages were “not soldiers,” according to Shoham. He noted that one of his guards “was a first-grade teacher, another was a lecturer at a university, and another was a doctor.” He characterized them as “normal people becoming terrorists.” Hamas-controlled schools in the Gaza Strip have been known for indoctrinating children into extremist views on Israel and the Jewish people. Their curriculum differs from what the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank teaches its children in that it glorifies jihad and romanticizes terrorism. (Townhall) In the coming days, we will be hearing more about the torture endured by the survivors. Times of Israel: Shoham spoke at length of his captivity saying that he was “intentionally starved … for sadistic psychological warfare” receiving between 200 and 300 calories a day to share with fellow hostages Guy and Evyatar David — also set to be released on Monday — first, “to make us suffer,” and second “to pressure Israeli society.” He went on to say that his Hamas captors boasted about stealing humanitarian aid. “I saw with my own eyes that they stole boxes and boxes and boxes of humanitarian aid from Egypt, from Turkey, from the Emirates, but they didn’t agree to give us any of this food in the tunnels,” he said. But after the February release of Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, all of whom were severely malnourished, his captors began giving “much, much more food,” he said, adding that it was dangerous because they were suffering from malnutrition. “It could have killed us” (Times of Israel).

FOX News: Since the release of the last 20 living Israeli hostages in Gaza, details have started to emerge about their medical conditions and the horrors they endured while in captivity. Similar to previously released hostages, those who returned on Monday appeared thin, suggesting they were not adequately fed.

Avinatan Or, who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival alongside his partner, Noa Argamani, was reportedly starved during his captivity and lost 30-40% of his body weight, according to Israel’s Channel 12. The outlet also said official medical documents noted that Or was “thin and very weak.” Or was reportedly held in central Gaza in harsh conditions for most of the war, according to Channel 12.

Additionally, Or was reportedly held in isolation for over two years and did not encounter other captives until his release, according to The Times of Israel, which cited Israel’s Channel 12. He was also allegedly given little access to news and only learned of the IDF mission that led to the rescue of Argamani and three others after his release.

DR. MARC SIEGEL: FROM HORROR TO HOPE: WHAT GAZA’S FREED HOSTAGES TEACH A WEARY WORLD

What all the 20 living hostages released from captivity in Gaza on Monday, Oct. 13, have in common is courage, hope and life

By Dr. Marc Siegel • Fox News

Any person who can survive captivity under extreme conditions is a hero in anyone’s book. Yes, there are variations in the degree of starvation, torture, mental anguish and deprivation; the degree of exposure to respiratory and gastrointestinal infections; not to mention the compounded torment for those who have been injured, beaten or shot, and for those with underlying medical conditions that aren’t being treated. But what all the 20 living hostages released from captivity in Gaza on Monday, Oct. 13, have in common is courage, hope and life. That is not to say they aren’t suffering or won’t continue to suffer. Still, they can hold fast to the belief that they have been chosen by God to survive.

Twin brothers — the 28-year-old Bermans — were seen smiling and hugging when they arrived at Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv, on Monday at one of the top medical centers in the world. But what unimaginable suffering was taking place beneath those smiles? How long will it take to treat the flashbacks, nightmares, extreme anxiety and episodes of depersonalization they will surely experience? What are the long-term effects of being dehumanized for prolonged periods while living in absolute terror?

Unfortunately, these questions are not new. President Donald Trump’s words in Israel this week, delivered before the Knesset — “Never again” and “Never forget” — refer not to Hamas but to the Holocaust, when millions of Jews and non-Jews were exterminated in Auschwitz and other camps.

Barely surviving under those circumstances often involved prayer. It brings to mind a scene from my new book, “The Miracles Among Us.” Praying directly to God can affect the outcome, but God grants us the miracles He wants to give, not necessarily those we ask Him for.

In 1944, Isaac Mittelman was interned in a labor camp in Hungary when he was discovered praying on Yom Kippur. He was strung up on a tree and left to freeze. Somehow he managed, barely, to survive the night. Doctors later placed him in a hospital and simply watched as his frostbitten arm became increasingly necrotic. Eventually, the cruel hospital doctors amputated it with only a towel between Isaac’s teeth for anesthesia.

Still, Isaac managed to survive, and weeks later he was again praying to God — reciting the Shema (“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one”) — when bombs hit the hospital where he was recovering, killing everyone but Isaac. He escaped wearing a Hungarian soldier’s uniform, and in Budapest was mistaken for a soldier because he spoke fluent Hungarian. When the Allies liberated the city, they nearly shot Isaac on sight but stopped when they heard him speaking Yiddish.

Why did God save him? Isaac later told his son Barry he believed it was so that he could go on to become a great rabbi and kosher butcher (mashgiach) later in life.

Why did God save Dr. Ellay Hogeg Golan, her 18-month-old baby and her husband after Hamas set fire to their home on their kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023? Many months later — after the baby survived, thanks to her mother’s breast milk, and Ellay herself survived a month-long coma at Sheba Medical Center, overcoming severe burns, blood clots and multiple infections including COVID — it became clear that God’s purpose was to have Ellay return to her work as a critical care anesthesiologist, where she could save others using the same ventilators that once kept her alive.

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