Freed Israeli hostage says she was held in Gaza hospital, civilian homes

[Behind the Aegis]

Former Israeli hostage Ada Sagi, 75, who was kidnapped by the Hamas-allied group Islamic Jihad on Oct. 7 last year, said she was held in both civilian homes and a hospital in and around the city of Khan Younis in Gaza before she was released as part of an exchange for Palestinian prisoners in November 2023.

In an interview aired Wednesday, Sagi told CBS News partner network BBC News that she was taken by two kidnappers on a motorcycle from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz into Gaza on Oct. 7. She said she was forced to leave her shoes behind, and her foot was badly burned by the exhaust pipe of the bike. She said she was put between her two captors on the motorcycle, one of whom had a Kalashnikov.

When they got into Gaza, she said she was put into a car and told by her kidnappers that they were from Islamic Jihad, which, like Hamas, has long been designated as a terrorist group by Israel and the U.S. She said she was informed that her captors wanted to keep her to use in a potential prisoner swap. Sagi and another female hostage were brought to a family home where children lived, where they were given food and a doctor was brought to look at her burn, she said.

"Then we started to hear the bombs from the Israeli army. I was very terrified, because I know the bombs from the other side, from Nir Oz, but on this side it was very terrifying. All the house was shaking," Sagi told the BBC.

The next day, Sagi and the other hostage were moved from the east of Khan Younis to an apartment in the center of the city.

more...

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Thank you for posting this

[Joinfortmill]

2. Hope everyone reads this.

[Beastly Boy]

3. I don't recall the Hamas health ministry reporting on the number of hostages held

in Gaza hospitals.

An honest oversight, I am sure.

[Bad Thoughts]

17. The Red Cross had a handle on it

Oh, wait, they've been deliberately absent. My mistake.

[Iggo]

4. That's horrible.

[Cha]

5. TY BtA.. from your link..

"People that are saying that they are no[t] involved — they are involved. They're getting money from Hamas. Our housekeeper's the same. He get the money. And I ask him: 'You say you are not Hamas, you are not [Islamic] Jihad. What? You take my freedom, and I am here?'" She said the housekeeper responded: "'I want to buy visa for my children and my wife to go out from Gaza.'".

"Every time, in every war, antisemitism raise her head. But this time, it's worse," Sagi said. "The world hates us, and I think they don't know the truth."

Sagi said her community has been destroyed.

"It was like Holocaust, but in the Holocaust, we have no army. You have no Israel. Now, we have Israel," she said.

[TomDaisy]

6. civilian homes within a generations-old open-air prison

[tritsofme]

9. So you find their actions to be justified?

[The Magistrate]

10. "We Are Victims! Anything We Do Is Justified!"

That seems to be, at any rate, the official Hamas point of view....

[Coventina]

24. Nice apology for terrorism! n/t

[Happy Hoosier]

25. And here you are justifying terrorism

These fine young men are just freedom fighters and totally justfied kidnapping a 75 year old woman and gunpoint and holding her in civilian structures.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

33. Do you have any idea of how just ridiculous you sound right now?

[yagotme]

38. "Civilian" homes, used by Hamas, for Hamas.

"Open air prison" with walls on 3 sides only, one of which was built and maintained by Egypt. Wonder why???

[William769]

7. Fuck Hamas, Fuck Hamas sympathizers, and most of all FUCK all the people that are ignorant

of what is happening in Palestine! You all are backhandedly supporting Hamas! Another question would be, is it ignorance?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

8. That didn't take long did it.

[TomDaisy]

11. criticizing Israel for committing war crimes and genocide is not pro-Hamas or anti-Semitism

and the world agrees with me

[The Magistrate]

12. And After That Declaration Of Herd Allegiance And Joy At Belonging

I would invite you to consider this.

I doubt anyone here questions the fact of systemic racism, that several centuries of not just believing anyone not white is a lesser being, but putting in some hard work to make it so in social rank, has some effect on the present. I doubt any would argue against the proposition that these 'habits' of our society operate to produce disparate outcomes, quite independent of the personal views on race of particular individuals deciding such things as who to lend to, or hire, or give a break to in court.

Hate and loathing for Jews has been at the root of Christendom and the West just a couple of decades shy of two millennia. The claim of exploitative superiority over people of color has been a feature of Christendom and the West for no more than a quarter of that stretch of time. For far longer, in Christendom and the West, killing Jews was viewed as an enjoyable duty, to be turned to for relief in times of stress. There's not much difference between Europe's reaction to the fourteenth century's Great Mortality and what Germans, aided mightily by several central European peoples, did in the wake of calamitous defeat in the twentieth century's Great War, and that difference is merely the general advance of industry and organization.

Old habits die hard....

[TomDaisy]

14. the world agrees with me. we have eyes.

[The Magistrate]

15. You Slay Me, Man, You Really Do

Thanks for the laugh, you've been a helpful agent in this universe.

[TomDaisy]

19. I just can't get past all the dead children.

[William769]

20. Just remember, their deaths are on Hamas Anyway you look at it.

And that is what the world see's.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

21. So you come into this thread and attempt to hijack it with a post that has nothing to do with the thread?

Weak sauce, but what the hey, you do you.

[Happy Hoosier]

26. So you feel the need to justify the actions that precipitated the recents deaths?

I can;t this kind of nonsense seriously. Your moral outrage in reserved only for (((them))).

[The Magistrate]

28. Which Invites The Question, Sir

Is it actually moral outrage, or merely taking sides in a fight, and finding pretense of moral outrage a convenient cudgel against one's chosen foe?

[Hekate]

34. I'd ask you to ask yourself who has benefitted by using the Palestinians as miserable pawns ...

…for all these decades, while world aid agencies keep pouring money into the place — but I don’t think you are receptive to the answer.

From my point of view, it is notable that while the civilian population’s infrastructure was in bad shape, Hamas managed to burrow a tunnel city underneath the schools, hospitals, and all the rest.

Cui bono? — Hamas. But follow the money further back than that. Who funds Hamas and their building projects?

[yardwork]

35. ....unless they're Jewish.

Seriously, man, this is what you seem to saying. According to you, the children of Hamas are innocent victims, but the children of Israelis are not. To me, all children are innocent. To you, because you disagree with Israeli policies, the victims of Hamas are not innocent, but deserving of being tortured, raped, and murdered.

I don't think the world agrees with you. Why should that matter anyway? Why would you care how popular your opinion is - unless you have a bit of a guilty conscience and you're looking for reassurance?

[sarisataka]

13. The article is about Hamas treatment of hostages

Illegally taken and held in protected areas against the laws of war.

Any comment about the article or should we just ignore what Jewish victims?

[wnylib]

18. Not the whole world. Some of us are informed enough not to be swayed by terrorist propaganda.

[sarisataka]

22. Silence is the most complete,

and honest answer a person can give. It is amazing how much nothing can communicate.

[question everything]

16. Interesting. It was speculated that the Bibas: mother, baby and todler were idnapped by Islamic Jihad

which was not part of previous negotiations with Hamas that brought exchange of hostages for hard criminals.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

23. K&R

[RandySF]

27. Yep, they're just like Mandela.

[betsuni]

29. K&R

[ExciteBike66]

30. They hide hostages in civilian homes, so let's bomb their children...

Do I have that right?

This is point #7019 in the list of why hamas is bad. That fact does not mean bombs should be dropped on gazan kids.

[The Magistrate]

31. No, You Don't Have It Right

Testimony of a person actually held prisoner in a family home reveals one facet of the open secret Hamas mingles its military operations among the residents of the place. The gunmen make it impossible for an enemy to engage them without also harming people the gunmen put in the way of incoming fire. What you are actually calling for is that the gunmen should operate with impunity. You are saying that Hamas treating Gaza residents like so many sandbags on a dug-out roof is a practice to be rewarded with safety from attack.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

32. Yes, you do have that right.

when an enemy combatant hides hostages in the homes of civilians, then all bets are off, if a civilian takes charge of hostages during a war, guess what? They now become combatants and whatever happens to them is on them.

The bottom line is that these parents are horrible parents because they, and only they, decided to put their families in harm's way and risk the wrath of Israel, knowing full well that what they are doing is subjecting their family to injury or death.

You failed.

[Coventina]

37. The jaw dropping ignorance of what people now think war is supposed to be is astounding!

War is hell! That's why you try to avoid it.

Hamas WANTED to unleash hell and they got it.

It's like people think that warfare is "supposed" to be conducted like an 18th century gentlemen's duel.

Argh!

[Coventina]

36. This is the way that war has always been fought. You fight the enemy where he hides.

You must hate OUR WW2 soldiers who fought the Nazis through tiny Tuscan towns, idyllic German villages, and serene Dutch polders.

This is why hiding behind civilians is an actual war crime. Not fighting terrorists.

On edit: clarity

Also, Jumping Jihadi on a cracker!!! Where did common knowledge about warfare go?!?!?! Does everyone think that war movies (no matter how grisly and "realistic" are actually what warfare actually means to a country that suffers it?!?!? FUCK!! The stupid, it burns.

[Cha]

39. Kick TY 🕯️🕊️💙🇮🇱🌈