Ex-hostage says captors bragged about stealing humanitarian aid, starved the hostages

Former hostage Tal Shoham says that he was starved for most of his time in captivity, while his captors stole aid and bragged about it.

“Most of my time in captivity, I was starved with Guy and Evyatar to the extent of [receiving only] 200 or 300 calories a day,” Shoham tells journalists over a Zoom press conference, referring to hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David, who are set to be freed tomorrow as part of a deal between Israel and Hamas.

“There were times that I saw with my own eyes that they stole boxes and boxes and boxes of humanitarian aid from Egypt, from Turkey, from the Emirates, but they didn’t agree to give us any of this food in the tunnels,” Shoham says.

The former hostage says that the captors also bragged about stealing aid and having supplies for months, while saying they wanted the Israeli hostages to suffer like the Palestinians in Gaza.

“They used to brag that they stole the humanitarian aid and they have supplies for months ahead,” he notes. “They actually confessed one time that they are starving us first, so we will suffer as their people are suffering, although they stole the humanitarian aid. It’s kind of a logical fallacy.”

According to Shoham, the terrorists also wanted to put pressure on Israel’s society so they would see pictures of them starving.

“It was part of their sadistic psychological warfare,” he said.

After severely emaciated hostages Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami were released in February this year, Shoham says their captors gave him, Gilboa-Dalal and David much more food.

“It backfired on Hamas and the day after, they started to give us much, much more food,” he tells reporters. “It actually was dangerous to us; it could have killed us, but we were lucky that it didn’t do so, and we are here.”