I went through hell, says 85-year-old hostage released by Hamas

Freed hostage Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, has opened up about being kidnapped by Hamas. She is one of two hostages released on Monday. 

Speaking to the media from a hospital in Tel Aviv, she said: “I went through hell, that I could not have known.” She described how she was kidnapped by Hamas gunmen on motorbikes. 

Her daughter said Lifschitz and her fellow captives were hit with sticks and taken into a “spider’s web” of underground tunnels. 

She said they slept on mattresses on the floor in the tunnels and were given white cheese and cucumbers to eat – the same as her Hamas captors. 

The release of the two women now brings the total of freed hostages to four. On Friday, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, were freed. 

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 5,000 have been killed since 7 October. More than 1,400 were killed in the Hamas attacks on Israel.