Ex-hostage on entry of aid into Gaza: ‘When there’s less food, then there’s also less for the hostages’

As Israel increases humanitarian aid in Gaza, a former Israeli-Argentinian hostage knows first-hand what that could mean for captives of the Hamas terror group.

Iair Horn, who spent a year and a half in captivity, says hostages could tell when more aid was available because they would receive more food.

“When there’s less food, then there’s also less for the hostages. When there’s aid, there’s a possibility you might get a cucumber,” says Horn, 46.

Hamas terrorists kidnapped Horn from his home at Kibbutz Nir Oz, along with 251 other people, during the group’s cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023. He was released Feb. 15 after 498 days in captivity. For most of that time, he was held in an underground cell in a tunnel with several other hostages, including his younger brother Eitan Horn, 38.

“I’m not a politician, and I’m not getting into those things because I don’t understand them. What I understand is very simple: I want my brother back,” Horn says. “My life is frozen right now. I live in a nightmare that every day they are kidnapping me anew.”