The two elderly women might have thought that their lives would end soon after being captured by members of the Palestinian Hamas Movement. However, no such thing happened with them. Instead, the armed members of Hamas treated them quite well, and took very good care of the two Israeli octogenarian ladies. After her release on October 23 (2023), Yocheved Lifshitz (83), one of two elderly hostages the other being 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, shared her experience with the media. A video shows Lifshitz shaking the hand of a Hamas fighter before going to one of the Red Cross officials who came to receive her. The lady also told the Hamas fighter “Shalom” (a Hebrew word meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquillity, and can be used idiomatically to mean both hello and goodbye) as she was treated well in captivity. The Hamas fighter, too, bowed his head and accepted the congratulations before the two hostages left Gaza.

A few days ago, Hamas released two US citizens who were captured by the Palestinian outfit. They released Lifshitz and Cooper on October 23 evening on purely humanitarian grounds mediated by Qatar and Egypt. In a statement, the Palestinian group said that it had released the two ladies on health grounds. They were handed over to Red Cross representatives and airlifted to a hospital in Israel. Later, their family members received them.

Talking to the media in presence of her daughter Sharone, Lifshitz stressed: “They (Hamas) kidnapped me and laid me on my side on a motorcycle and flew with me through the plowed fields with a rope on each side of me. During this time, the jewellery was taken off my body. They said that they believe the Quran and they will not harm us.” She strongly criticised the Israeli Army for allowing the attack to happen, saying: “We were the scapegoat. The Army and the State abandoned us. They (Hamas) burned our fields, sent fire balloons, and crowds came. The Army did not take it seriously.“

Commenting on her stay as a hostage in Nir Oz kibbutz, Lifshitz stated: “First we arrived in a big hall where 25 people were gathered and after a few hours, they separated people and put them in a separate room. There was a doctor attached to us and he came every few days to see what was going on. The doctor always brought medicines.” She stressed: “There were five of us in total and each of us had a guard. Their behaviour was good, they took care of us in every detail.” Anadolu, the Turkish news agency, quoted Lifshitz as saying: “They provided us with the same conditions they had in the tunnels. They gave us the feta cheese and cucumber they ate.” She thanked Hamas members for treating their prisoners gently over the two weeks, and also for offering humane treatment. She further revealed that Hamas built a “huge network” of tunnels of resistance in the Gaza Strip. As expected, the statement of the old lady has created trouble for the Israeli Administration which claimed earlier that Hamas members were torturing the Israeli hostages.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have requested the Gazans to share actionable information about the locations of Israeli hostages where Hamas has kept them in captivity. The IDF, on X (formerly Twitter), also offered money for sharing this information so that they could carry out rescue operations. “If your will is to live in peace and to have a better future for your children, do the humanitarian deed immediately and share verified and valuable information about hostages being held in your area,” the IDF mentioned on X.

On October 23, US President Joe Biden said that a ceasefire could only be possible if Hamas agrees to release all the 222 Israelis who are detained by the Palestinian group. Meanwhile, Qatar stated that Israel should not be allowed to kill the Palestinians indiscriminately as it would disrupt global security. China, too, has made it clear that every state has the Right to Self-Defence, but it must be done in accordance with International Law related to Human Rights. According to the Asian Giant, it is important to ensure that the safety of innocent civilians is not compromised.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das