Yocheved Lifshitz, one of two hostages recently freed by Hamas, has described her ordeal after being kidnapped by the Palestinian militant group in the brazen October 7 attack, saying she “went through hell.”
With her daughter kneeling by the side of her wheelchair, the frail 85-year-old grandmother on Tuesday recalled the moment she was abducted by gunmen on motorbikes after militants broke into her home in the kibbutz Nir Oz.
“It was difficult but we will get through this,” Lifshitz told reporters at a news conference at the Tel Aviv hospital where she has been recovering since being freed.
Most terrorist groups will do at least the bare minimum to keep the hostages healthy and sane because it makes it easier to negotiate their release - a corpse is worth less than a living hostage - and to reduce the risk of the hostages fighting back. So it’s probably true.
While that’s likely true as a hostage at that age is fragile and might die on them if they’re too harsh to her or she doesn’t get her meds and as you said a dead hostage won’t be worth anything to them anyway, it’s also true that if anyone of us was in her shoes and had a loved one still in captivity we wouldn’t say a single negative thing about the captors before they release him/her. There’s a reason why they kept their husbands, it’s very likely a “you better say something nice about us to the media or you’re going to kiss your husbands goodbye” situation.