‘I do not understand how he survived’, says freed Israeli hostage’s niece

Whereas held hostage by Hamas for 15 months in Gaza, 80-year-old Gadi Moses ate primarily a chunk of bread and an olive twice a day, his niece Efrat Machikawa says.

“I do not know how he survived,” she tells the BBC. “He misplaced a lot weight.”

He was given a small bowl of water to scrub himself each 5 days and needed to ask to make use of the bathroom, she mentioned. He moved ceaselessly and was principally alone, with Ms Machikawa saying “loneliness is one other type of torture”.

He calculated maths issues in his head to distract himself, and walked as much as 11 km (six miles) a day in a room, measuring the space, she added.

“Even within the darkest instances, he knew the best way to one way or the other elevate himself,” she mentioned. “The hope of reuniting with the household and worrying about us was the best energy, was the one diet that he had for his soul.”

Gadi was one in all 18 hostages launched up to now this 12 months as a part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in change for 583 Palestinian prisoners.

The ceasefire goals to finish 15 months of warfare in Gaza, after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing round 1,200 individuals and taking 251 as hostages.

Israel’s army marketing campaign in response killed greater than 47,000 individuals in Gaza, in line with the Hamas-run well being ministry, whose figures are seen as dependable by the UN.

Now, as hostages return from greater than a 12 months in captivity, particulars of their circumstances are rising. Accounts of restricted meals, with no recent greens, are much like circumstances reported by Gazans throughout the warfare.

Two former hostages’ members of the family instructed the BBC they got here again thinner.

“We’re all very, very excited to have Keith again dwelling, however very apprehensive to see the state that he got here again to us in,” Tal Wax, the niece of 65-year-old American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, who was launched on Saturday, mentioned.

“Though we will see that he’s capable of stroll and speak we see that he has misplaced a number of weight,” she mentioned.

She heard from her cousins and Mr Siegel’s spouse Aviva that “he needed to endure a number of horrible conditions in captivity whereas nonetheless remaining the great individual he’s.”

He’s nonetheless a vegan, she added.

“Keith may be very humane and he wished to inform us he is nonetheless the identical individual… even in any case that he is been via… He is nonetheless dwelling as much as his convictions,” she mentioned.

“That is simply the beginning of his rehabilitation. We now have a great distance forward of us.”

Ms Machikawa mentioned even her uncle’s launch was a “terrifying” expertise.

As crowds surrounded him in Gaza on Thursday, he thought it was the “finish of his life”, she mentioned.

After he was again in Israel, she was capable of sleep for 5 hours for the primary time since his seize.

“I really feel like my rigidity is slowly melting,” she mentioned.

On Friday, she ran to embrace her uncle within the hospital, the place he gave her “the strongest, strongest hug”, and he or she let loose a “burst of tears of reduction and love”.

“We perceive that the uncle we all know is identical one we all know however even higher,” she mentioned, as he was speaking about rehabilitation and being robust, and dreaming of returning to his fields, the place he’s an agricultural professional.

“Unity and household and devoting your self for justice and a proper trigger are higher than something, as a result of I finished my life on 7 October,” she mentioned.

She thanked Qatar and the US for mediating the deal, and “courageous” Pink Cross staff who facilitated the releases.

“The enjoyment is wonderful”, she mentioned, however she has combined emotions till each hostage is again. She mentioned “we should eradicate terror” and “Israel has to safe its borders and work for a greater neighbourhood and area”.

“We will all the time attempt to be higher, to be like Gadi, to be the one which connects even within the worst instances and provides the hand for the possibility of higher lives with everybody round us.”

Few hostages freed up to now this 12 months have spoken publicly about their experiences.

On Saturday, Doron Steinbrecher, who was freed two weeks in the past, launched a video assertion.

“It should take time and it is a course of – it will not finish in every week or two, however I am right here due to you, and I am okay,” she mentioned.

“I perceive that everybody is aware of me from that horrible recording “They caught me, they caught me, they caught me” or because the blonde woman sporting pink”, she mentioned. “However I am now not blonde, and I will not put on pink anymore. I am Doron, 31 years previous. I am now not Hamas’s captive, and I am dwelling.”

To households with family members nonetheless in captivity, “you aren’t alone” and “we proceed to struggle for you”, she added.

That features the Bibas household, who welcomed again Yarden on Saturday, however not his spouse, Shiri, and two small sons, Ariel and Kfir, who have been additionally taken hostage.

Hamas had beforehand mentioned they have been killed in an Israeli air strike early on within the warfare – however they have been named in an inventory of hostages it mentioned in January it was keen to free.

“1 / 4 of our coronary heart has returned to us after 15 lengthy months,” the Bibas household mentioned in assertion. “Yarden has returned dwelling, however the dwelling stays incomplete.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog mentioned his nation remained “deeply involved” about their destiny.

One other 15 hostages and round 1,300 Palestinian prisoners are nonetheless because of be launched within the first six weeks of the ceasefire, which began on 19 January.