Eitan Yahalomi, 12, was beaten and forced to watch videos from the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, his aunt, Deborah Cohen, says. And Emily Hand, who turned 9 in captivity, now only speaks in whispers, her father says. She was convinced her time in Gaza had lasted a year. Much of their experiences, including their conditions, where they were held, and how they were split apart, remains unknown.But hints about the ordeals of children who were held hostage in Gaza by Hamas for over 50 days are emerging from interviews with their relatives.
Eitan, who was described by relatives as a boy who loves nature, animals and soccer, told Cohen that in captivity, every time children cried, they were threatened with a gun “to silence them.” “Hamas made him watch the horrific (Oct 7) footage,” she told French broadcasting network BMTV. “Once they got to Gaza, all the civilians, everyone was hitting them … We’re talking about a child 12 years old,” she said.
Emily’s father, Thomas Hand, said that one night after she returned home, she cried until her face was “red and blotchy.” “The most shocking, disturbing part of meeting her was she was just whispering, you couldn’t hear her. I had to put my ear on her lips,” Hand said. “She’d been conditioned not to make any noise.”
Danny Brom, director of METIV: Israel Psychotrauma Centre, said some of the hostages will need medical treatment but others will not. Many will need to talk. “The main issue that needs to be restored is a sense of control,” he said. Elma Avraham, 84, released Sunday, was in a “fight for her life”, hospital staff said. “They held her in terrible conditions,” her daughter said. “My mother arrived hours before we would have lost her.”