According to the New York Times, “She found herself on the floor in a dilapidated building, clearly in Gaza, her shirt up baring her breasts and pants pulled down, with seven gunmen standing over her.”
By Rachel Avraham
Former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th together with her boyfriend Matan Zangauker, now 25, who is still held hostage by Hamas. Gritzewsky was released from Hamas captivity in November 2023. Now, over 15 months later, she did an interview with the New York Times, where she recounted her experience in Hamas captivity.
According to the New York Times, Gritzewsky immigrated to Israel from Mexico in her teens. After starting a confectionary business, the New York Times reported that she went to work in a medical cannabis farm in Nir Oz, where she met Mr. Zangauker. According to the report, they became a couple and moved in together. “We liked the quiet of the kibbutz, with our cup of coffee and cigarette,” she said. “We prefer anonymity.”
When gunmen overran Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7th and broke into their safe room, Gritzewsky and her boyfriend Matan jumped out the window. They both fled in different directions and have been separated ever since. Soon after trying to escape on foot, Gritzewsky was captured, beaten, and driven to Gaza.
Gritzewsky told the New York Times that “her captors beat her, then molested her, as they drove her to Gaza. She said she was trapped between two gunmen on a motorcycle, her head and face covered with a large piece of nylon or tarpaulin. A home security camera belonging to a Nir Oz resident, Eyal Barad, captured the moment, showing her with a white fabric wrapped around her head on the motorcycle with the gunmen. Ms. Gritzewsky said that the men pressed her leg onto the exhaust pipe, burning it, and that one of the kidnappers sitting behind her groped her, touching her breast under her shirt, and her legs. She passed out before they crossed the border.”
According to the New York Times, she “awoke in the enclave surrounded by gunmen, half-naked, terrified and vulnerable. She found herself on the floor in a dilapidated building, clearly in Gaza, her shirt up baring her breasts and pants pulled down, with seven gunmen standing over her. She does not know what exactly happened to her while she was passed out, but she said she gestured to them and told them in English that she had her period, believing that probably saved her from worse.”
“They hit me and lifted me up,” she told the New York Times. “I felt they were disappointed,” she said, adding, “I don’t think I have ever been so thankful for my period.” According to the New York Times, “One of her captors hugged her and told her, while pointing his pistol at her, that even if there was a deal, she would not be released because he wanted to marry her and have children with her. She said one told her he was a mathematics teacher, and another, a lawyer. She said they stole her earrings and a bracelet.”
According to the New York Times, for over 50 days, “she was moved from place to place, mostly aboveground, at first alone with her captors and then held with other hostages. Though she told her captors she suffered from a chronic digestive disease, she said she was not provided with any medication. She said she was held in private residences, in a hospital and, shortly before her release, in a tunnel.” When she was released from captivity on November 30, 2023, “she discovered she had a broken hip.”
The New York Times concluded, “A United Nations report released last year found signs that participants in the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel committed sexual violence in multiple locations and said that some hostages held in Gaza had been subjected to rape and sexual torture.” Former captives and survivors of the October 7 onslaught have reported being sexually assaulted by terrorists and of witnessing extreme acts of sexual violence against people who were eventually killed, the Times of Israel reported.
