Torture and starvation: The horrors of being a Hamas hostage

Telegraph

08-03-2025

Dalia Cusnir takes a moment to compose herself in the relative peace of Tel Aviv's central library.
Outside, in what has become known as Hostages Square, a large crowd chants a mixture of angry slogans and mournful songs as the last hours of Israel's ceasefire deal with Hamas slip away.
Inside, Dalia prepares to answer that simplest yet hardest of questions: how are you?
Tonight it's particularly hard. Less than two hours ago, Hamas released a propaganda video shot in the tunnels of Gaza showing her two beloved brothers-in-law, Iair and Eitan Horn.
Iair, 46, was released on Feb 15, but Eitan, 38, never made it onto the list of hostages to get out under the first phase of the deal.
Set to emotional music and with liberal use of reverberative echo, the video lingers on the brothers as they hug and sob uncontrollably in the moments before they were torn apart.
'Do you want me to leave my little brother to die,' cries a desperate-looking Iair down the camera, presumably directed at the Israeli government, presumably on his captors' orders.
Eitan, for his part, says: 'Sometimes I am fine and not fine. But here,' he adds, pointing to his head, 'I am not fine,' before breaking down in tears again.
Dalia lets out a long breath. The family had known the video would come.
But still, 'It was a big shock,' she says. 'It's a sign that things are getting too late. It's like a desperate person is drowning and with his last voice is calling on us, but we cannot help.'
Naturally on the stocky side, Eitan does not look quite as gaunt as some of his fellow hostages.
But it is the blotchy spots on his arm that causes Dalia the greatest concern.
For years now, the community organiser has suffered from a rare and serious skin condition that requires daily medication to keep under control.
Without it, he could develop sepsis at any minute, which would most likely be fatal.
'The video showed his arms full of wounds. He should be taking antibiotics, proper hygiene and avoiding humid places, and we know he's not getting any of those,' says Dalia.
'We all saw the images on Oct 7 2023. Hamas slaughtered, they burned, they abducted, they raped. It's the same people who are holding him.'
'Torture' is a word that has increasingly entered Israeli public discourse since the latest batch of hostage releases began in mid-January.
Mostly, the hostages have kept their counsel, with hints and suggestions of what they endured emerging via family members such as Dalia.
Despite this, we are learning enough to know that the 'torture' took many forms, denial of basic healthcare, including for those wounded in the massacre of Oct 7, being one of them.
Eliya Cohen, the 26-year-old who was freed late last month, endured crude surgery to dig a number of bullets out of his leg without anaesthetic, according to reports.
Alon Ohel, who was chained to Mr Cohen for much of the time, went into captivity with an eye wound which, his family believes, has never been properly treated.
Like Eitan, he did not make it onto the first-phase hostage release list. As things stand, there is no second phase.
According to Dalia, Iair Horn is still 'not seeing well', despite never having needed glasses before, a hint that his eyesight might be permanently damaged as a result of (nearly) 500 days of poor light.
She and others have talked about their loved ones 'learning to walk again', having been cramped for so many months.
Then there were the beatings.
In an interview last week that shook Israel's political establishment to its foundations, recently released hostage Eli Sharabi described suffering broken ribs from the attacks, which he said were closely linked to comments made by hard-Right Israeli ministers who endorsed harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
'We knew they were watching it [the news],' he told Channel 12. 'Every responsible utterance, the first ones to suffer from it are us.'
Mr Sharabi, who only learnt that his wife and daughters had been murdered upon his release, directed specific criticism at Itamar Ben-Gvir, the former national security minister, for his comments.
The ultra-nationalist refused to apologise. This week, he said he was proud of remarks and accused the former hostage of 'echoing Hamas propaganda'.
To what extent was torture in the traditional sense – the deliberate imposition of pain – widespread, and what forms did it take?
Sagui Dekel-Chen, for example, still has scars from wounds inflicted during an interrogation by Hamas, his family has suggested.
But, for the most part, we simply don't know, because those who may have suffered it are unwilling to discuss it publicly, or even, in some cases, behind closed doors.
'He's not talking about specific torture,' says Dalia of Iair. 'We've been told not to ask about it and to respect that.
'He still has Eitan there. He believes that every incorrect word might be used to damage Eitan.'
Despite the murkiness around this question, we are learning from multiple released hostages that the mere method of physical restraint was often torture enough.
Eyal Kalderon, the brother of Ofer, who was released on Feb 1, spoke to The Telegraph at the protest in Tel Aviv on March 1.
'In the beginning he was held by both legs and cuffs in a cage,' he said. 'It was a very tiny cage and he shared it with one other, Yarden [Bibas, husband and father to the murdered Shiri, Ariel and Kfir].'
Mr Sharabi described in his TV interview the excruciating pain of the restraint methods initially used by Hamas.
'During the first three days my hands are tied behind my back, my legs are tied with ropes that tear into your flesh,' he recalled.
'I remember not being able to fall asleep because of the pain.'
Prof Hagai Levine, the medical adviser to the Hostages Family Forum, said: 'We know that they were locked, shackled, which is very traumatic for people.
'We know some were cuffed upside down. From the legs down. Any kind of torture that you can imagine. It's literally hell.'
Excruciating as this sounds, it seems that the most prolific form of 'torture' – not to mention the easiest for the Hamas captors to inflict – was the pain caused by starvation.
Indeed, Mr Sharabi said that, for him, it was worse than the broken ribs.
For months, a small bowl of pasta or a piece of pitta bread was the norm – perhaps 200-300 calories a day, a fraction of what an adult requires to stay healthy.
The tunnels echoed to the sounds of hostages moaning in pain from the hunger. Even obtaining an extra dried date from the guards became a major victory as the months dragged on.
It was the shockingly emaciated state of Mr Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy as they were released on Feb 8 that first woke Israel up to the full horror of the hostages' starvation.
But, from the testimony of others, it seems that this was a rare PR blip from Hamas, which generally took care to feed those slated for release more, to give a better impression to the outside world.
Speaking of his brother again, Mr Kalderon said: 'In the month before [his release] they started to give him more food. And so he went out in a bit better shape.'
Boredom was a torture all of its own, and prompted a range of coping mechanisms.
'Ofer said he didn't realise how many songs he knew the words to,' said Mr Kalderon. 'He sang so many songs to Yarden. It helped keep his mind positive.'
Others formed fiercely close and protective friendships.
Mr Sharabi talked about swiftly 'adopting' the younger Alon Ohel, and constantly being together for long periods meant he knew 'everything about him and his family'.
But, again, these comforts came with a sting in the tail. When Mr Ohel learnt that his friend was to be released without him, it prompted panic, 'a moment of hysteria'. Despite being happy that the older man was being released, it took him 15 minutes to calm down.
Viki Cohen, whose now 20-year-old son was the only survivor from an Israeli tank crew that was overrun on Oct 7, said she had heard from released hostages that the young man 'talked a lot about his family', while in captivity.
'He missed us very much and believes we will do everything we can to bring him back.'
For many hostages abducted from the melee of Oct 7, its the torture of not knowing if their loved ones were alive or dead.
Mr Sharabi, we now know, went 15 months without knowing that his close family were all dead.
Yarden Bibas, similarly, only found out about the appalling fate of his wife and two children after he was released and their bodies were returned by Hamas.
It appears that Hamas also used ambiguity over whether individual hostages would be released as a form of abuse.
Prof Levine said: 'They were told you are going to be released and they are not released, so they don't know what to believe.
'They were told that family members were murdered or not murdered – they don't know.'
Overall, returned hostages have shared a feeling best summed up by Ofer Kalderon.
'He described it as being buried alive,' said his brother. 'He didn't see the light for all of this period.
'Apart from terrorists, he didn't see anyone apart from rats or spiders.'
Back in Israel, the torment continues. How a person even begins to rehabilitate after such experiences is a massive question.
But, as loved ones are finding out, some of the released hostages are not prepared even to start while their friends remain in the tunnels.
'Iair is not willing to start rehabilitation,' said Dalia. 'He says 'I'm going to start, but I'll do it when Eitan and all the rest are back'.
'He keeps saying, 'they have no time, they have no time – trust me, I've been there'.'
Eyal Kalderon says something very similar.
'He [Ofer] cannot start his process of healing until everybody is out,' he said.
Treading a delicate path
Adding to the anguish of the newly released is the dilemma of how best to campaign to get the others out: to reveal to the world the full horror of the conditions; or to keep quiet for fear of antagonising Hamas and making things worse for those still captive?
Most, it seems, are treading a delicate path, but leaning towards the latter.
That is why Mr Sharabi's intervention last week was so momentous – it even appeared to rattle Benjamin Netanyahu sufficiently to offer an extremely rare apology.
Those who believe in a more muscular approach hope that it will be a turning point, that others will come forward and recount their ordeals in detail, creating a wave of disgust strong enough to force the government into accepting the strategic compromises that would come with a proper second-phase agreement.
Last week, Iair Horn, Mr Sharabi and others visited Donald Trump in Washington for a meeting in the Oval office.
The meeting appeared to move the US president so much that within hours he had issued a warning to Hamas stating that this was its last chance to release the remaining hostages: ''Shalom Hamas' means Hello and Goodbye.'
Many in Israel hoped the visit would prevent the drift back to all-out war that could spell disaster for the remaining 24 living hostages.
At the very least, it may have provided a smidgen of distraction for Iair.
'He says 'you think I'm here, you look at me, but I'm not',' his sister said. 'My soul, my body and my mind is in Gaza. Please release me.'