Former Israeli captive in Gaza Liat Atzili spoke with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. In her extraordinary account of what had taken place, Atzili said that the civilian home in which she was held had neither control over their captivity nor release.
An Israeli-American formerly held captive by the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that she was treated humanely – which is in sharp contrast to how Palestinian prisoners are treated by Israeli authorities.
Liat Atzili was released on November 29, during the one-week ceasefire between Hamas and the Israeli government.
She spent a total of 54 days in Gaza where she was reportedly held in an apartment in the city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
Moment of Capture
According to Haaretz, Atzili was taken at about 11 am on October 7, when “two armed men in uniform burst into the unlocked room” where she was staying. When the journalist asked her if the captors were “scary”, she said: “Not particularly.”
“They had weapons but they didn’t threaten me. They told me, ‘You don’t have to be afraid, we won’t hurt you, come with us.’ They gave me time to get dressed and organized, but I wasn’t capable of doing that because I was in shock,” she continued, according to Haaretz.
Atzili said that the men did not touch her and spoke to her in English, saying “all the time” not to worry.
“They seemed really worried about me and wanted me to eat and drink. They said, ‘We will protect you, you’re safe here, nothing will happen to you.’ They let me shower, change clothes. They washed my clothes,” Atzili reportedly said.
Crispy Pizza
Although Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza starting on October 9, which led to a widespread famine across the Palestinian population in the Strip, Israeli captives were not left starving.
To the contrary, Atzili, who is a vegetarian, was granted special treatment.
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“They were shocked that I’m a vegetarian. ‘So, what do you eat?’ they asked. I told them I really like pizza. So one of them got on his bicycle and brought a pizza from Crispy Pizza in Khan Yunis,” she said.
According to the former Israeli captives, they got fruit and vegetables when they asked them. “We didn’t suffer from hunger. They tried to see to it that we had enough food,” she said.
‘God Bless You’
Atzili was reportedly moved to an apartment where she stayed along with another captive, 30-year-old Ilana Gritzewsky, who was also released on November 30, as part of the prisoner exchange deal.
“Ilana and I remained with them for the whole period. They were about 30 years old. They weren’t armed or in uniform. We stayed in that apartment for about 10 days and were then moved to another one. And that was it,” Atzili said.
According to the woman, the guards were a teacher and a lawyer. “Both are married and each has a child. The wife of one of them came to the apartment one day with their newborn,” she said.
When asked if they were affiliated with Hamas, she said: “I was able to understand a little about the place Hamas has in their lives. They talked a lot about the poverty in the Strip, about how hard it is to leave it.”
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Atzili said that they had long conversations with their guards. “They wanted us to see them as people, and we wanted them to see us as people. So very quickly conversations started about family, about our lives, and it worked,” she explained.
The woman also said that the initial fear that they may be sexually assaulted quickly disappeared.
“At first we were very apprehensive that something would happen, that we would be sexually assaulted. But afterward we understood that it was okay, that they were staying within the limits,” she said.
When asked about the moment they were released, she said: “Before he (the guard – PC) left us, he said, ‘Good luck, may God bless you.’ We thanked him. There were mutual pats on the shoulder.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
But according to the Zionists and their sympathizers, Hamas is “a terrorist organization”, while the child murderers, women rapists of the IDF are “the most ethical army in the world”. We will see if this account will find its way to the American media headlines. Although I’m certain it will not.
There you have it. This is the third woman who said the Palestinians treated her with respect. Israelis are scum! they would have used her as a human shield, zip-tied her wrists, then shot her in the back of the head like they did to all those Palestinians and Gazans who were found in mass graves. They murdered a man with Down Syndrome. What else would they do??
She is also Israeli, and she isn’t scum. People will need to build bridges when this is over.
I agree. Branding all Israelis as scum is inflammatory and simply not true. The vast majority of Israelis are good people, like in all countries. It’s important to separate a country’s government and army policies from the general population.
“..it is important to separate a country’s government and army policies from the general population.”
This would be the general voting population to whom the politicians appeal to vote them into Government so they can deliver their policies, including military policies? … and this would be the same general population that appears to support the genocidal actions of the IDF?
It is of the utmost importance that such testimonies be disseminated as widely as possible so that people can see for themselves what actually happens on the ground and how hostages are treated by the Palestinian Resistance.
Where is her husband?
Murdered on 10/7 by Hamas…. this is terrible, biased, ״journalism,” omitting such details to make it sound like she had any amazing time eating pizza in Gaza while not knowing if her children or husband were alive….
Nowhere in the article does it say that “she had an amazing time eating pizza in Gaza”. She (Liat Atzili) also did not say anything about her husband being killed by Hamas. Most of the Israeli civilians that were killed on October 7th were, in fact, killed by the Israeli occupation forces. Even some of the Israeli news media sites (which usually lie about everything) had admitted that the IOF had indeed killed many Israeli civilians on October 7th.
The vast majority of Israelis are Zionists; therefore, the vast majority of them are extremely wicked people, who, just like the members of their genocidal occupation government and genocidal occupation army, all foolishly believe that it is they who are “the chosen people” of this planet, and that all non-Jews are way below them. They also believe that they possess the right to steal other people’s lands and create a “Jewish homeland” on those lands (as they did to Palestine, along with parts of Syria and Lebanon), as well as commit genocide against non-Jews (as they’ve been doing against the Palestinians over the past 76 years).
And, these beliefs do not only apply to the vast majority of Israelis; what about all of the Zionists who live outside of occupied Palestine? They have the same exact beliefs as all of the Zionists inside occupied Palestine (who constitute the vast majority of Israelis).