Hamas forced a 12-year-old Israeli hostage to watch footage of the terror group’s October 7 massacre while being held hostage inside Gaza, his aunt has said.
Deborah Cohen told BFMTV that Eitan Yahalomi, who has French and Israeli citizenship and who was released on Monday, experienced ‘horrors’ in captivity.
‘They are monsters. When he arrived in Gaza, all the Gazans, they all beat him. We are talking about a 12-year-old boy!’ she told the French TV channel.
She also said that gunmen would threaten children, including nine-year-old Irish Israeli girl Emily Hand, with rifles ‘to shut them up’ if they cried.
‘He went through horrors,’ she said, adding she was horrified to learn that her nephew had been forced to watch GoPro footage of Hamas’s massacre, in which the terrorists killed around 1,200 people across southern Israel on October 7.
‘The Hamas terrorists forced him to watch films of the horrors, the kind that no one wants to see, they forced him to watch them,’ she said.
‘We were very happy yesterday, but now that I know about this, I’m worried. It’s inconceivable, I don’t know who could do such things.’
Deborah Cohen told France ‘s BFMTV that Eitan Yahalomi (seen Monday), who has French and Israeli citizenship and who was released on Monday, experienced ‘horrors’ in captivity
Footage of the attacks has been shared widely online, and shows extreme acts of violence, including attacks against innocent civilians in their homes.
READ MORE: The horrors endured by Hamas’s hostages
The terror attack prompted Israel to launch an air and ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza. The Israeli bombardment has killed more than 15,000 in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities.
The war came to a pause for the first time since October 7 on Friday, when Israel and Hamas reached a four-day truce agreement, in which both sides also said they would release hostages and prisoners. It was set to end Monday, but was extended by two further days at the last minute.
The latest round of exchanges on Monday night brought the total number of people released from Gaza under the truce to 50 Israeli hostages.
Israel has released 150 Palestinian prisoners, all women and minors.
Another 19 hostages have been freed under separate deals, including Thai workers and a dual Russian-Israeli citizen.
Eleven hostages arrived in Israel late Monday, mostly dual nationals, with Argentinians, Germans and French.
Images released by the Israeli military showed Eitan reunited with his mother, who gripped him tightly to her.
Eitan was in his pyjamas, hiding with his family, when they were abducted.
The door to their safe room would not close, so Eitan’s father Ohad Yahalomi stood outside it with a gun.
Eitan was forced to watch footage of Hamas’ s massacre, in which terrorists killed around 1,200 people across southern Israel on October 7, his aunt has said
Pictured: A still grab from a video shows a Hamas gunmen firing on a car
Ohad was wounded in an exchange of fire, and the whole family, including Eitan’s mother Batsheva and his two sisters were taken.
His mother and sisters later managed to escape.
Eitan’s grandmother Esther also spoke after his release. She said that for the first 16 days he was held in captivity, he was kept alone in a closed room.
‘Those were very, very difficult days… just imagine what he went through there. It’s hard for me to talk about it,’ Esther said.
She said he was moved to a group of hostages who had been dragged from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz in the October 7 terror attack.
‘It was much easier for him there, his nanny from kindergarten was there… he saw a familiar face,’ Yahalomi said.
Cohen told BFMTV Eitan is a ‘reserved boy’ and that it will ‘take him time to express his feelings’ about the 50-day ordeal he has suffered through.
With ‘lots of love, lots of hugs, and the fact that he is now surrounded by family’ together with psychological treatment, she hopes he will overcome the experience.
The comments from Eitan’s family are the latest to paint a picture of what life under Hamas captivity has been like for the roughly 240 people taken into Gaza.
While some hostages have said they were treated better than had been expected by Hamas – being fed and looked after – the conditions still sound bleak.
Eitan Yahalomi, 12, who was released from the Gaza Strip on November 27 after being taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel, is embraced by a loved one at Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov) in Tel Aviv, Israel, Nov. 28
Eitan is seen being guided by a loved one after reuniting with them overnight
One Israeli hostage freed by Hamas said in an interview that she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and people became hungry. She was kept in a ‘suffocating’ room and slept on plastic chairs with a sheet for nearly 50 days.
In one of the first interviews with a freed hostage, 78-year-old Ruti Munder told Israel’s Channel 13 television that she spent the entirety of her time with her daughter, Keren, and grandson, Ohad Munder-Zichri.
Young Ohad celebrated his ninth birthday in captivity.
Her account, broadcast Monday, adds to the trickle of information about the experience of captives held in Gaza.
Munder was snatched Oct. 7 from her home in Nir Oz, a kibbutz in southern Israel. Her husband, Avraham, also 78, was taken hostage too and remains in Gaza. Her son was killed in the attack.
Initially, they ate ‘chicken with rice, all sorts of canned food and cheese,’ Munder told Channel 13, in an audio interview. ‘We were OK.’
They were given tea in the morning and evening, and the children were given sweets. But the menu changed when ‘the economic situation was not good, and people were hungry.’
Israel has maintained a tight siege on Gaza since the war erupted, leading to shortages of food, fuel and other basic items.
Munder, who was freed Friday, returned in good physical condition, like most other captives.
But one of the released hostages, an 84-year-old woman, has been hospitalized in life-threatening condition after not receiving proper care in captivity, doctors said.
Another freed captive needed surgery.
Freed hostages have mostly kept out of the public eye since their return. Any details about their ordeal have come through relatives, who have not revealed much.
People pass by a wall with photos of about 240 hostages who were abducted during the Oct. 7, Hamas attack on Israel. in Jerusalem, November 28
Protesters hold signs as they call for the immediate release of hostages, especially Shiri Bibas, 32, her husband Yarden Bibas, 34 and their children Kfir Bibas, 10 months, and Ariel, 4, during the hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, November 28
Munder, confirming accounts from relatives of other freed captives, said they slept on plastic chairs.
She said she covered herself with a sheet but that not all captives had one.
Boys who were there would stay up late chatting, while some of the girls would cry, she said. Some boys slept on the floor.
She said she would wake up late to help pass the time. The room where she was held was ‘suffocating,’ and the captives were prevented from opening the blinds, but she managed to crack open a window. ‘It was very difficult,’ she said.