Amid massacres and kidnappings, an 85-year-old Israeli grandmother kidnapped and released by Hamas terrorists has revealed what it’s like to be held in a terrifying maze of tunnels under Gaza.
Kibbutz resident Yocheved Lifshitz, one of about 220 hostages violently taken by Hamas on October 7, endured a nightmare two weeks as a prisoner in what he called a “cobweb” of tunnels under the Gaza Strip before being released late Monday with another woman, Nurit Cooper, 79 years old.
“I’ve been through hell,” Lifshitz said, almost in a whisper as he spoke to reporters at the Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv.
“They are rampant in our kibbutz,” he said of the terrorists who attacked his home in kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel.
“They blew up electronic fences, special fences that cost $2.5 billion to build but didn’t help with anything,” Lifshitz added.
After hostage Yocheved Lifshitz, one of about 220 people violently taken by Hamas on October 7, was released, he and experts revealed what it was like in the tunnel where the terrorists were holding the hostages.AP
“People stormed our house. They beat people, took some hostages. They don’t differentiate between young and old, it hurts a lot.”
He described how the kidnappers grabbed him and laid him on a motorbike before speeding off with him through dense bush.
Lifshitz said he was beaten with a stick during the trip: “The young man hit me on the trip. They didn’t break my ribs but it hurt and I had difficulty breathing.”
A Palestinian worker inside a smuggling tunnel in Rafah, on the border between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip.AP
The terrorists also stole his watch and jewelry on the way to the hideout.
“They took us to the entrance to the tunnel. We arrived at the tunnel and walked several kilometers on wet ground,” he added.
“There’s a giant tunnel system, like a spider’s web.”
Israeli soldiers investigate a tunnel found in a house under a kitchen in Rafah, near the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.POOL/AFP via Getty Images
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Hamas’ vast matrix of tunnels consists of clogged, narrow, labyrinthine passages with little oxygen.
Military experts told NBC News that Israel is at a disadvantage when dealing with Hamas underground, where Israel’s technological superiority cannot help.
“It’s like being underwater,” said retired US Army Lt. Gen. Mark Schwartz, who ran US security coordination in Israel and the Palestinian Authority from 2019 to 2021.
Yocheved Lifshitz was abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz on October 7 and held in an underground Hamas tunnel for two weeks until he was released Monday.Getty Images
“I’ve been in a tunnel, and when you go down, you quickly lose all direction and all sense of time,” said Daphné Richemond-Barak, an assistant professor at Israel’s Reichman University who founded the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare and is credited with writing the book most comprehensive on the subject.
“The consensus is that you only really send your troops into the tunnel as a last resort, perhaps to get hostages.”
According to a 2016 report in the journal Geopolitics, the tunnels — used for moving equipment and ammunition — are typically about six and a half feet tall and only about a foot wide.
Yocheved Lifshitz was released, but her husband, Oded, is still being held by Hamas.via REUTERS
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Some are said to be wired for electricity and communication.
Much has been made of photos showing Lifshitz shaking hands with a Hamas gunman and appearing to say “Shalom” to him moments before he was released to International Red Cross officials at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
But Lifshitz, with the help of her daughter Sharone, who translated some of what the elderly woman said during the press conference, acknowledged that the captors took good care of the hostages – making sure they were well fed and monitored medically.
Some tunnels are as high as six and a half feet, while others, like this one in Rafah, are smaller.AP
“When we got there, they told us that they were believers of the Koran, that they would not harm us, and that we would live in the same living conditions as them in the tunnel,” Lifshitz said.
“We started walking down the tunnel, [where] the dirt is moist and everything is always damp and moist. We arrived at a hall with 25 people in it; after two to three hours they separated five people from my kibbutz, Nir Oz. They take good care of us.”
Militants also ensure that hostages get medical treatment and medicine is given to those who need it, he said.
The Israeli army has a special force “Tunnel Unit” to investigate and dismantle Hamas tunnels as above.Getty Images
“They take care of the wounded,” added the old woman.
“We lay on mattresses, they made sure everything was clean,” Lifshitz said.
“They make sure we don’t get sick, and we have a doctor with us every two or three days. They divided us into groups according to residence, took care of all our needs. To their credit, they kept us very clean. They make sure we eat, we eat the same food as them – pita bread with white cheese, processed cheese and cucumber.”
An Israeli soldier emerges from the tunnel, connecting Gaza and southern Israel, in 2014.Getty Images
He explained that paramedics were on the scene to administer medication and ensure the wound did not become infected.
“They clean the toilets, not us,” Lifshitz said.
“They are afraid of contagion.”
Israeli soldiers investigate a tunnel in a private Palestinian home.IDF/AFP via Getty Images
But when his captors try to talk about war, the hostages seem to draw the line.
“We told [them]’No politics,’ ” Lifshitz said.
Lifshitz criticized the Israeli government’s handling of the October 7 surprise attack.
Charred personal belongings lie inside the Nir Oz kibbutz, along the border with the Gaza Strip, where Lifshitz and some of his family live. AFP via Getty Images
He said his kibbutz residents suffered untold injuries because of alleged Israeli intelligence failures.
“We are the scapegoats of the government,” he said, referring to the September incident in the country’s southern region that foreshadowed the October attack.
“We were abandoned by the government three weeks before. [The Hamas] educate us, so to speak. People came to the road, they set fire to our fields, sent balloons that would set fire to our fields. The IDF does not take it seriously,” Lifshitz said.
Yocheved Lifshitz speaks to reporters with his daughter Sharone Lifshitz (left) outside Ichilov Hospital after he was freed Monday from the clutches of Hamas terrorists.Getty Images
“Suddenly, on Saturday morning [Oct. 7] when all was quiet, they bombed us — then a swarm attacked the mahal fence, opening the kibbutz gate. It was very unpleasant.”
In light of that, the Lifshitz family was amazed that he was returned to them.
“It’s unbelievable that Yukka’s grandmother who was like my mother returned to us from Hamas custody,” her grandson Daniel Lifshitz wrote on Facebook.
Nurit Cooper, 79, was released with Lifshitz after two weeks of being held hostage by Hamas terrorists.
“So much love for this very brave woman. A great heroine.”
But Lifshitz’s reunion with relatives was not all happy because her husband, who was kidnapped with her, remains a hostage — along with more than 200 others, according to Israeli authorities.
Her son Arnon Lifshitz told Walla, an Israeli news site, that his mother had been kept “with 50 to 60 other people in the same place. If everyone is in the same situation, there is room for optimism. He and [my] father has been separated, he is in another place, and we hope that he will also recover as soon as possible.”
Judith Tai Raanan (right) and daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, US citizens held hostage by Hamas militants, were released Oct. 20. via REUTERS
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2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: The terrorist group Hamas wins Palestinian legislative elections.
2007: Hamas takes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launched a military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the city of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches its biggest attack on Israel in 50 years.
More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, more than 4,200 injured and at least 100 taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli cities.
Hamas terrorists are seen taking women hostage and parading them through the streets in a gruesome video.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and promised Hamas would pay an “unprecedented price.”
Gaza health officials reported at least 3,000 Palestinians killed and more than 12,500 injured.
Hostages Judith Raanan, 59, and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, were also released by Hamas on Friday.
The American mother and daughter were visiting Israel to celebrate Judith’s mother’s 85th birthday when they were kidnapped.
According to a report from Israel’s public broadcaster Kan, a third of Nir Oz’s 400 residents are believed to have been kidnapped or killed in the attack.
The Israeli government estimates that about 1,400 people were killed by Hamas on Oct. 7.
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