Ex-hostage Rom Braslavski brutally beaten for months, offered extra food to convert to Islam, mother says

Released hostage Rom Braslavski, who was freed on Monday after over 730 days of captivity in Gaza, was tortured and starved during captivity, and his captors would offer him extra food in an attempt to persuade him to convert to Islam, according to his mother Tami.

“Rom told me that between April and July they abused him more,” she tells the Kan public broadcaster. “Several times a day, they would beat him with a whip and with things that I will not even mention. He absorbed it.”

“He told me, ‘Mom, I always knew it would end.'”

Braslavski, 21, was working as a security guard when he was taken captive by Hamas terrorists from the Supernova festival on October 7, 2023.

“It’s important for him to maintain his Jewish identity because they asked him to convert to Islam,” Tami says. “They tried to tempt him with food and small gifts. He didn’t break down and didn’t do it.”

At some point, after being given just a half pita in the evening every day, and living with his hands and feet handcuffed, Braslavski decided to act and managed to set fire to a terrorist’s uniform and a book, using the flame to cook some pasta. The smoke attracted the attention of other people nearby, but his captor transferred him to a slightly better location before anyone could find him, Tami shares.

Braslavski revealed to his mother that he saw bodies of slain hostages in Gaza right before he was released.

“He told the Coordinator for the Hostages and Missing [at the Prime Minister’s Office] Gal Hirsch that his mission is not over,” she says.