An Israeli mother and her two daughters endured “psychological warfare” during the 50 days they were held hostage by Hamas, including being told, “In Israel, nobody cares about us.”
Doron Katz Asher and his daughters, 5-year-old Raz and 2-year-old Aviv, were not physically harmed — but suffered extreme emotional torment including watching Asher’s mother be shot dead by Hamas as they were forcibly taken to Gaza, Asher told CNN.
Asher, 34, and her daughter were first held in a house in Gaza, where her captors tried to sell the story that no one was fighting to free them.
“They don’t give us much information, they try to say that Hamas wants to free us but in Israel, nobody cares about us,” Asher said.
“That we’re not going back to live in the kibbutz because it’s not our home – it’s not where we belong.”
But he didn’t believe that narrative because the sounds of the booming fighting outside the building convinced him “that something was happening to bring us home, to put pressure on Hamas to release us.”
Sixteen days later, Asher and her daughters were taken to what she called a “so-called” hospital – because a hospital is “a place that should take care of people, but instead, it was taken over by Hamas and they used it to hide hostages,” Asher said.
Doron Katz Asher and his daughters, 5-year-old Raz and 2-year-old Aviv, were taken hostage. Instagram/Doron Katz Asher
US officials are “confident” Hamas is using Gaza’s largest hospital to hold “at least some” of the hostages seized during the bloody October 7 attack on Israel, although it is unclear where Asher and his daughter are being held.
While in the hospital, Aviv developed a fever and had to be kept in a sink with cold water to keep his body temperature down.
“He screamed. They would have told us to shut up, but the girl had a fever and I had to take care of her somehow,” Asher said.
Asher described the “psychological warfare” he endured after being captured by Hamas. CNN
The family was held in hospital for almost five weeks before they were “smuggled” out in a Hamas vehicle.
“No one told us that we were going to be released, so driving through the streets of Gaza was very, very scary,” Asher said.
As they were driven away, thousands of people lined the streets trying to ram the vehicle and knock on its windows, Asher recalled, noting it was the first time Raz said he was scared.
The family was reunited after they were released as part of a prisoner swap in a ceasefire late last year. Schneider Children’s Hospital
Asher and his daughter were just three of 105 people released by Hamas during the temporary ceasefire with Israel, which lasted from November 24 to December 1.
Although video footage shared online showed Hamas members kindly handing over hostages to the Red Cross, Asher said the display was “one big show.”
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“Before I was released, my daughter and I were barefoot for 50 days. We’re cold because they wear short sleeves in November.” But before they were handed over to Red Cross staff, they were given shoes and Hamas members “dressed me in nice clothes,” Asher said.
A video of Asher and her daughter’s tearful reunion with their father, Yoni Asher, 37, was shared online in late November as the three were part of the first wave of hostages to be released by Hamas.
Asher said he and his family are trying to regain a sense of normalcy as they await the release of his mother’s slain partner, 79-year-old Gadi Moses, who remains in custody.
The three were part of 105 hostages released during the temporary ceasefire. AP
“We’re waiting for him, he’s going to be 80 years old, he’s off his meds,” Asher said.
Moses and another hostage, Gadi Katzir, 47, were seen in a video released by the Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in December, pleading with the Israeli government to arrange their release.
“He got really skinny — we saw that in the video,” Asher said.
“I cannot understand what has happened to my family, and I cannot understand their inhumanity. People who kill people in their beds. Who did that? That is not human.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
