Lifshitz, along with a second woman, Nurit Cooper (79), were handed over by Hamas militants to the Red Cross near Rafah, on the border with Egypt. According to Hamas, this happened for ‘humanitarian reasons’. After arriving, the two women were taken to a hospital.
In a press conference, Lifshitz said she went through hell when she was kidnapped two weeks ago from her home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz co-founded by her husband and her. “No distinction was made between young and old. It was very painful. They hit me in the ribs.”
The woman said she was taken away on a motorcycle. “They blew up the electric border fence that cost $2 billion, but it didn’t help,” Lifshitz said of the ease with which Hamas fighters entered Israel.
Once they arrived in Gaza, Lifshitz and more than twenty others were led through the tunnel complex that Hamas built under parts of Gaza. The woman described it as a ‘spider web’. She says she was treated well in captivity. She was examined by a doctor every two or three days. She stayed in a group of five. There were guards and a nurse.
Lifshitz’s husband Oded (83), a former journalist, is still being held hostage at an unknown location in Gaza. Their house was destroyed by fire in the Hamas attack. For decades, the Lifshitz couple have collected sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and taken them to hospitals in Israel for medical treatment.
Daughter
“While I cannot express the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those – some 200 innocent people – who remain hostage in Gaza,” she said. Lifshitz’s daughter Sharone.
She has now visited her mother in the hospital. “I sat next to her for an hour. That was incredible: just being able to hold her hand and give her a kiss on the cheek. I am so proud of her,” she said on BBC Radio 4.
“It is almost unbelievable that she is out of Hamas captivity,” her grandson Daniel reports on Instagram. He added a photo of his grandmother sitting in a wheelchair, surrounded by loved ones.
The October 7 attack on Israel injured, killed or kidnapped more Israelis who supported the Palestinian cause, such as 74-year-old Canadian-Israeli peace activist Vivian Silver.
Sharone believes the help her parents provided to Palestinians may have helped her release. Kindness, she said last week, would somehow save her parents. “I grew up hearing all these Holocaust stories about how all my uncles’ lives were saved through acts of kindness. Do I want that to be the story here too? Yes.”
On Monday, Hamas released a video showing the handover, with militants giving drinks and snacks to the dazed but calm women and holding their hands as they are led to Red Cross workers.
Just before the video ends, Lifshitz reaches back to shake a militant’s hand, reports Reuters news agency, which could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage.
