For Ilana Gritzewsky, a hostage released from Gaza more than 400 days ago, the nightmare is not over. The young woman says she is fighting for the return of her companion, Matan Zangauker, still captive in Gaza.
“My soul is still there,” Ilana Gritzewsky, 31, told AFP, released at the end of November 2023 during the only truce in the Palestinian territory at war which allowed the release of 105 hostages.
At the beginning of December, Hamas released a video of her companion, who had been kidnapped with her from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz, during the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement in Israel on October 7, 2023.
That day, 251 people were kidnapped. Among them, 94 remain hostages in Gaza, 34 of whom were declared dead by the army.
“Seeing these images (of Matan) took me back to the period of captivity,” said the young woman, evoking “the cries, the voices, the smells, the fear and the helplessness”.
“I have been free for more than 400 days and my health situation is deteriorating, so those who have still been in Gaza for more than 460 days, what condition are they in?” she asks.
While indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel have been relaunched in recent days for the release of hostages still held, ex-hostages are impatient for their loved ones still in captivity.
Ilana Gritzewsky pleads for an “immediate” agreement and recalls that all the hostages are “humanitarian cases”.
Arriving alone in Israel from Mexico at the age of 16, Ms. Gritzewsky participates in weekly rallies and demonstrations to demand an agreement, alongside the mother of her companion Einav Zangauker, a leading figure in the fight for the release of the hostages.
“I am broken, but I saw my companion alive on video a month ago. If he is holding up in captivity, how could I not get up every morning to fight for him?”, confides -She.
The young woman, who rarely speaks, told AFP of the worst moments experienced at the hands of her jailers.
“I lost 11 kilos in captivity. I also suffered abuse. I was burned, I lost part of my hearing on the left side, I dislocated my jaw. I was the victim of sexual harassment during the kidnapping (…) I continue to suffer the consequences for the moment, I cannot begin rehabilitation”, says the young woman, her voice trembling.
“A daily hell”
Luis Har, almost 72 years old, was released during an Israeli army operation after 129 days of captivity with his brother-in-law Fernando Merman.
He says he remembers every detail of his kidnapping from a house on Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak with four members of his partner’s family. Today, he says he cannot give up because “we must free them all”.
He has resumed one of his favorite activities, contemporary dance, but Mr. Har admits that his daily life will remain suspended until all the hostages are returned. This is his “fight”.
He describes to AFP his months of captivity in the Gaza Strip, where he was held in an apartment, unlike others who were held in tunnels, according to the Israeli army.
He talks about his tears when he thought of his children and his ten grandchildren in the evening before going to sleep, his days with only a pita meal shared with his brother-in-law and his threatening jailers. For him, it was “daily hell.”
| © AFP Ilana Gritzewsky, January 11, 2025 in Tel Aviv, Israel |
When Israeli soldiers saved him, “it was so moving.” “A soldier whispered in my ear ‘Luis, we’ve come to get you’.”
“I am no longer the same man but now we have to take care of the others and bring them all back,” says Mr. Har. “You should never be discouraged.”
“I remain optimistic otherwise I would no longer be able to get up in the morning but each failure of the negotiations breaks me a little more,” regrets Ms. Gritzewsky for her part.
What she wants now is “action”.
“We no longer want promises but actions and pressure on Hamas and on (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu,” she said, addressing world leaders, mentioning in particular American President-elect Donald Trump.
