Freed hostage says Hamas terrorists told him Israel was destroyed

A 12-year-old boy who was freed from Hamas captivity late last month has said the terrorists told him that Israel was destroyed in the Oct. 7 attack and also lied about his mother being held hostage.

Eitan Yahalomi recalled how he didn’t know what happened to his family during his more than a month in captivity in Gaza — though the terrorists falsely told him his mother, who was back in Israel, was also being held there.

“Sometimes they would tell me that they would take me to be with her, and I had hope,” he told Ynet News.

“I imagined what had happened to [my family] and tried to speak with them inside my head. I was afraid that perhaps something had happened to them.

“The terrorists told me that the kibbutz no longer existed and the State of Israel didn’t exist,” Eitan explained.

Eitan was dragged from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’ surprise attack and was forced onto a motorcycle that made its way into Gaza, where he was held until the end of November when he was released as part of a weeklong truce.

His mother and two younger sisters were also placed on another motorcycle, but as it approached the Gaza Strip it came in contact with an Israeli tank — forcing the would-be captors to flee as the mother and her children escaped back into Israel.

Eitan’s father, Ohad, was wounded in the attack, and remains a hostage.

The young boy also spoke about what he was forced to endure for over a month.

He said that when he first arrived in the Gaza Strip, local Palestinian civilians beat him and other hostages in the middle of the street.

“That was a frightening experience,” Eitan admitted.

At first, he said he was kept alone, which he described as “very bad, frightening.

“I sat on the bed all the time, that’s all I did,” Yahalomi recounted, noting that a guard watching him would not let him move unless it was to use the bathroom.

He was only allowed to listen to a radio, and said “it was nice to hear things in Hebrew.”

After some time, Eitan said he was moved to another location where there were other hostages — and “met a good friend from the kibbutz.”

Together, they passed time by using the limited resources available to them to make themselves cards and draw.

Eitan also kept a journal, in which he described days when he was moved to another room as “special days.”

He added that he would sometimes have to wait six to seven hours until he was fed a meal of pita and a pickle, or some rice he described as “disgusting.”

The boy said he tried to take his mind off the taste and his hunger by fantasizing about the food back home.

His aunt, Deborah Cohen, has previously said Eitan was forced to watch graphic footage of the Hamas massacres in Israel.

“Every time a child cried there, they threatened them with a weapon to make them be quiet. Once they got to Gaza, all the civilians, everyone was hitting them,” she said in an interview with French outlet BFM TV.

“We’re talking about a child 12 years old,” she added.

By the time the terrorists told him he would be released on Nov. 26, Eitan said he “didn’t entirely believe that it would happen.”

He said he only found out his mother was not a hostage when he returned home the next day and was told she was waiting for him.

“I was happy and I asked how come she was here,” he recounted.

Now, Eitan says he has concerns about his father.

He noted that while he was being held in captivity, he could hear the explosions from bombs falling as the Israeli Defense Forces launched their offensive.

“It was really scary,” Eitna said. “I think that [dad] can also hear them and perhaps that is scary for him too.”

“He has to come back as soon as possible. He and all the others must be brought back.”

There are still 129 hostages in the Gaza Strip, though not all of them are still believed to be alive.

Hamas officials have said they are willing to discuss another prisoner swap that would see more than 100 Israeli hostages released in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel’s jails.

But one Hamas official said that even a new prisoner swap would only take place once Israel has withdrawn from war-torn Gaza, as the terrorist group rejected an Egyptian-led truce proposal with Israel that would see the militants relinquish power in return for an end to the war.