From the Liveblog of
Friday, February 21, 2025
Ex-hostage Iair Horn recounts being ‘starved, interrogated, abused,’ begs Trump to bring home ‘seriously ill’ brother
Iair Horn, who was freed from Hamas captivity on Saturday, pens a message to US President Donald Trump in a column in Fox News begging him to help free his brother, Eitan, who is still held hostage and not slated for release during the ceasefire’s first stage.
“While my body lies in Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, my heart and soul remain trapped in Gaza,” writes Horn. “As long as my brother Eitan and the other hostages are held captive there, I too remain a hostage.”
With the return of the bodies yesterday of Ariel and Kfir Bibas and Oded Lifshitz, Horn writes: “I am tormented by a single thought: Will my brother Eitan be next? Will more families receive their loved ones in coffins?”
Horn reveals that for his first month in captivity, he was separated from Eitan before they were reunited and “stayed side by side until the day of my release – a moment that tears at my heart every second of every day.”
He says that “the conditions of our captivity were beyond anything humans should endure. The physical torture was unbearable, especially in those first months. But it was the psychological torture that almost broke us – the constant fear that each breath could be our last, that any word or movement could trigger our captors’ violence. We were starved, interrogated, abused. I survived by focusing only on making it through one more day, then another.”
Horn says that his brother is “seriously ill” and “has severe infections and dangerous fevers. Every hour that passes puts their lives at greater risk.”
Turning to Trump, Horn writes: “I will forever owe you my life. History will remember you as the leader who took decisive action when it mattered most, who upheld the sacred value of human life. Everything I do from this point forward will be thanks to your efforts. But there is urgent work still to be done. I beg you to use your influence once again to bring home those who remain. We need your help now more than ever.”
The Times of Israel Community.