‘I don’t know how he survived’, says freed Israeli hostage’s niece

While held hostage by Hamas for 15 months in Gaza, 80-year-old Gadi Moses ate mainly a piece of bread and an olive twice a day, his niece Efrat Machikawa says.

“I have no idea how he survived,” she tells the BBC. “He lost so much weight.”

He was given a small bowl of water to wash himself every five days and had to ask to use the toilet, she said. He moved frequently and was mostly alone, with Ms Machikawa saying “loneliness is another form of torture”.

He calculated math problems in his head to distract himself, and walked up to 11 km (six miles) in a room, measuring the distance, she added.

“Even in the darkest times, he knew how to somehow lift himself,” she said. “The hope of reuniting with the family and worrying about us was the greatest power, was the only nutrition that he had for his soul.”

Gadi was one of 18 hostages released so far this year as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in exchange for 583 Palestinian prisoners.

The ceasefire aims to end 15 months of war in Gaza, after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 as hostages.

Israel’s military campaign in response killed more than 47,000 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.

Now, as hostages return from more than a year in captivity, details of their conditions are emerging. Accounts of limited food, with no fresh vegetables, are similar to conditions reported by Gazans during the war.

Two former hostages’ family members told the BBC they came back thinner.

“We’re all very, very excited to have Keith back home, but very worried to see the state that he came back to us in,” Tal Wax, the niece of 65-year-old American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, who was released on Saturday, said.

“Although we can see that he is able to walk and talk we see that he has lost a lot of weight,” she said.

She heard from her cousins and Mr Siegel’s wife Aviva that “he had to endure a lot of horrible situations in captivity while still remaining the good person he is.”

He is still a vegan, she added.

“Keith is very humane and he wanted to tell us he’s still the same person… even after all that he’s been through… He’s still living up to his convictions,” she said.

“This is just the start of his rehabilitation. We have a long way ahead of us.”

Ms Machikawa said even her uncle’s release was a “terrifying” experience.

As crowds surrounded him in Gaza on Thursday, he thought it was the “end of his life”, she said.

After he was back in Israel, she was able to sleep for five hours for the first time since his capture.

“I feel like my tension is slowly melting,” she said.

On Friday, she ran to embrace her uncle in the hospital, where he gave her “the strongest, most powerful hug”, and she let out a “burst of tears of relief and love”.

“We understand that the uncle we know is the same one we know but even greater,” she said, as he was talking about rehabilitation and being strong, and dreaming of returning to his fields, where he is an agricultural expert.

“Unity and family and devoting yourself for justice and a right cause are greater than anything, because I stopped my life on 7 October,” she said.

She thanked Qatar and the US for mediating the deal, and “brave” Red Cross workers who facilitated the releases.

“The joy is amazing”, she said, but she has mixed feelings until every hostage is back. She said “we must eradicate terror” and “Israel has to secure its borders and work for a better neighbourhood and region”.

“We shall always strive to be better, to be like Gadi, to be the one that connects even in the worst times and gives the hand for the chance of better lives with everyone around us.”

Few hostages freed so far this year have spoken publicly about their experiences.

On Saturday, Doron Steinbrecher, who was freed two weeks ago, released a video statement.

“It will take time and it’s a process – it won’t end in a week or two, but I’m here thanks to you, and I’m okay,” she said.

“I understand that everyone knows me from that terrible recording “They caught me, they caught me, they caught me” or as the blonde girl wearing pink”, she said. “But I’m no longer blonde, and I won’t wear pink anymore. I’m Doron, 31 years old. I’m no longer Hamas’s captive, and I’m home.”

To families with loved ones still in captivity, “you are not alone” and “we continue to fight for you”, she added.

That includes the Bibas family, who welcomed back Yarden on Saturday, but not his wife, Shiri, and two small sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were also taken hostage.

Hamas had previously said they were killed in an Israeli air strike early on in the war – but they were named in a list of hostages it said in January it was willing to free.

“A quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months,” the Bibas family said in statement. “Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said his country remained “deeply concerned” about their fate.

Another 15 hostages and around 1,300 Palestinian prisoners are still due to be released in the first six weeks of the ceasefire, which started on 19 January.